LLH in the DC Heroes System: Intelligence
We are now entering the world of attributes that no one thinks about much. For most gamers, DEX/STR/BODY is pretty much all there is and all that there ever will be. However, we have yet to think about Intelligence as a game mechanic.
In a well-balanced game, players should get some kind of reward for how smart they are. It should be an award that's beyond, "oh, you get to create all of these great gadgets". Part of the problem with dealing with INT is the same problem that humans have with the idea of the Singlularity - how do you recreate the actions of someone who is smarter than you are, since you don't have the intelligence yourself to understand how Lex Luthor would plot or scheme?
Here are the benchmarks for Intelligence, the Active Value (AV) of any action taken with the brain.
Benchmarks
1-2. The person has the problem-solving abilities of the average high school graduate.
3-4. This individual is the equivalent of a particularly bright high school graduate.
5-6. The individual has the ability to process information at the level of an industrious college student.
7-8. The person's intellectual capacity rivals a professional who is one of ten authorities in a field of study or a born genius.
9-10. The intellect equals a professional who is one of three world authorities on a subject.
11-13. The person is a genius or has intellect on a par with the best authority in the world on a subject.
13-15. The individual's intelligence is beyond what is normally experienced on Earth, with the ability to conceive concepts beyond current conventions.
16-18. This person has an intellect giving the individual the ability to adopt concepts completely foreign to his society or environment.
19-21. This individual has the intellectual ability to master every worldly subject.
22-24. This individual posses intellect with the ability to comprehend and utilize knowledge spanning the galaxy.
25-27. At this level, the individual can understand and process knowledge on a universal scale.
28-30. The individual can understand and conceive knowledge that is universal in magnitude.
There's a lot not to like about this writeup. First, it was written 25 years ago, when the idea of a college education was very common but not nearly as common as it is today. These days, you have to have a college education to get just about any good job at all and a Bachelor of Arts has less and less cachet as it's been debased by the lowering of standards by academic institutions in order to get more customers - uh, I meant to graduate more students.
I would certainly replace the words, "high school graduate" with "teenager" and "college student" with "young adult". Those substitutions might give more sense to the writeup.
Secondly, it assumes that all intelligence is strictly academic intelligence, or rather that the "g factor" that measures intelligence correlates so strongly to academic intelligence that it makes no difference. My claim is that IQ tests/academic achievement measures some kinds of intelligence, but not all of them. (It does measure the kinds of intelligence that society places a monetary value on, so there's that.)
Thirdly, I think these benchmarks kind of break the "2-4 are the APs associated with most humans" model. Batman's IQ is about an 11 or 12 or something. Yeah.
Anyway, FWIW, here are the intelligence rankings of the various Legionnaires (so far, we're still working all this shit out):
INT only
18: Jodie
8: Charles, Julia
6: Daria, Sandi (Fusion), Stacy, Jamie, Karen
5: Tom, Mack
4: Jane
3: Quinn, Sandi (normal), Fran
2: Brittany, Tiffany, Trent
At the lower ends of the scale, these make sense.
At the higher ends of the scale, they break down a little. Jodie's 18 is plausible because who the hell knows what INT 18 means anyway? Julia's INT = 8 can be justified as "precocious genius".
Once you start talking about Charles vs. Daria, or Daria vs. Jamie or Karen the scale breaks down - but it only breaks down if you're focused on academic accomplishment. Charles's justification for INT 8 is that he mastered how to fly the Gridrunner. But that forgets that he had an inclination or interest. Daria didn't.
Could she have mastered it? Maybe, in the same amount of time, if she were interested. We don't want to punish Daria for not taking the same level of interest, so there has to be some sort of intelligence that Charles has that Daria doesn't have which, adding across all of the spectra of intelligence, gives him a higher score.
Same for Daria vs. Stacy or Jamie. In high school, she could blow these two people out of the water. However, they end up with the same INT score here, which can be justified. Stacy blows Daria out of the water in "interpersonal intelligence" - she senses people's feelings and motives in a way that Daria couldn't even start. Jamie has more "intra-personal" intelligence, or rather, his time with the Legion has allowed him to tap his potential. As BG wrote, "He wants it, and will work hard to get it, whether it’s ten yards down-field or that high grade."
I've always seen Daria as a bit lazy. (No wonder she was attracted to Trent.) Hopefully, Daria will learn that there's more than one kind of intelligence. She's not at Chuck's INT 8 yet, but give her time. She might figure it out someday.
In a well-balanced game, players should get some kind of reward for how smart they are. It should be an award that's beyond, "oh, you get to create all of these great gadgets". Part of the problem with dealing with INT is the same problem that humans have with the idea of the Singlularity - how do you recreate the actions of someone who is smarter than you are, since you don't have the intelligence yourself to understand how Lex Luthor would plot or scheme?
Here are the benchmarks for Intelligence, the Active Value (AV) of any action taken with the brain.
Benchmarks
1-2. The person has the problem-solving abilities of the average high school graduate.
3-4. This individual is the equivalent of a particularly bright high school graduate.
5-6. The individual has the ability to process information at the level of an industrious college student.
7-8. The person's intellectual capacity rivals a professional who is one of ten authorities in a field of study or a born genius.
9-10. The intellect equals a professional who is one of three world authorities on a subject.
11-13. The person is a genius or has intellect on a par with the best authority in the world on a subject.
13-15. The individual's intelligence is beyond what is normally experienced on Earth, with the ability to conceive concepts beyond current conventions.
16-18. This person has an intellect giving the individual the ability to adopt concepts completely foreign to his society or environment.
19-21. This individual has the intellectual ability to master every worldly subject.
22-24. This individual posses intellect with the ability to comprehend and utilize knowledge spanning the galaxy.
25-27. At this level, the individual can understand and process knowledge on a universal scale.
28-30. The individual can understand and conceive knowledge that is universal in magnitude.
There's a lot not to like about this writeup. First, it was written 25 years ago, when the idea of a college education was very common but not nearly as common as it is today. These days, you have to have a college education to get just about any good job at all and a Bachelor of Arts has less and less cachet as it's been debased by the lowering of standards by academic institutions in order to get more customers - uh, I meant to graduate more students.
I would certainly replace the words, "high school graduate" with "teenager" and "college student" with "young adult". Those substitutions might give more sense to the writeup.
Secondly, it assumes that all intelligence is strictly academic intelligence, or rather that the "g factor" that measures intelligence correlates so strongly to academic intelligence that it makes no difference. My claim is that IQ tests/academic achievement measures some kinds of intelligence, but not all of them. (It does measure the kinds of intelligence that society places a monetary value on, so there's that.)
Thirdly, I think these benchmarks kind of break the "2-4 are the APs associated with most humans" model. Batman's IQ is about an 11 or 12 or something. Yeah.
Anyway, FWIW, here are the intelligence rankings of the various Legionnaires (so far, we're still working all this shit out):
INT only
18: Jodie
8: Charles, Julia
6: Daria, Sandi (Fusion), Stacy, Jamie, Karen
5: Tom, Mack
4: Jane
3: Quinn, Sandi (normal), Fran
2: Brittany, Tiffany, Trent
At the lower ends of the scale, these make sense.
At the higher ends of the scale, they break down a little. Jodie's 18 is plausible because who the hell knows what INT 18 means anyway? Julia's INT = 8 can be justified as "precocious genius".
Once you start talking about Charles vs. Daria, or Daria vs. Jamie or Karen the scale breaks down - but it only breaks down if you're focused on academic accomplishment. Charles's justification for INT 8 is that he mastered how to fly the Gridrunner. But that forgets that he had an inclination or interest. Daria didn't.
Could she have mastered it? Maybe, in the same amount of time, if she were interested. We don't want to punish Daria for not taking the same level of interest, so there has to be some sort of intelligence that Charles has that Daria doesn't have which, adding across all of the spectra of intelligence, gives him a higher score.
Same for Daria vs. Stacy or Jamie. In high school, she could blow these two people out of the water. However, they end up with the same INT score here, which can be justified. Stacy blows Daria out of the water in "interpersonal intelligence" - she senses people's feelings and motives in a way that Daria couldn't even start. Jamie has more "intra-personal" intelligence, or rather, his time with the Legion has allowed him to tap his potential. As BG wrote, "He wants it, and will work hard to get it, whether it’s ten yards down-field or that high grade."
I've always seen Daria as a bit lazy. (No wonder she was attracted to Trent.) Hopefully, Daria will learn that there's more than one kind of intelligence. She's not at Chuck's INT 8 yet, but give her time. She might figure it out someday.
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