The writeup on this site seemed a bit weak when you look at the things that he's done in the comics, especially in recent years since the Annihilation story.

I used the existing writeup but gave it some tweaks to fit with how I see the character. Enjoy!



SILVER SURFER
Norrin Radd

F AM
A UN
S UN
E ShZ
R EX
I MN
P AM

Health: 750
Karma: 145

Resources Pr
Popularity 20

Powers

Invulnerability: The Surfer can withstand great extremes of temperature caused by the build-up of friction within atmospheres or the vacuum of space or the intense heat and radiation of the surface of stars. The Surfer is also immune to toxins and diseases of all kinds. The Surfer also does not age, though he is not technically immortal in a “godly” sense. Invulnerability to Fire, Heat, Cold, Radiation, Toxins, Disease and Aging.

Power Conversion: The Surfer has the power to channel cosmic radiation into his body and transform it into useful forms, including sustenance and energy for his other powers.

* Ability Boost: The Surfer can augment the strength of his cosmic energy powered body to a degree that rivals the Hulk’s formidable rage-enhanced strength. By focusing on one ability, he can raise it to Shift-Z for 1-10 rounds. Raising physical abilities in this way also increases his Health score accordingly. The Surfer can also raise his True Invulnerability to Shift-Y for 1-10 hours a day or a maximum of Shift-Z for 1-10 rounds a day in this manner.

* Plasma Generation: The Surfer can project extremely powerful cosmic energy blast of Shift X Force or Energy. By channeling cosmic energy to his limit, he can boost this ability to Shift-Z for 1-10 rounds once per day.

* Self-Regeneration with Unearthly ability.

* Heal Others with Unearthly ability. He cannot restore lost Endurance Ranks.

* Detect energy and type anywhere on a planet, with Unearthly ability.

* True Flight: Surfer to fly even without his board up to Class 3000 speeds in space and Shift Z max in atmospheres although does so rarely.

* Elemental Conversion, Molecular Conversion, and Mechanical Creation: The Surfer can manipulate matter and can rearrange the molecules of matter to create other configurations with Unearthly ability. This costs him no health. He cannot, however, create life or living matter from nothing.

* Shrinking: The Surfer can use his cosmic energies to allow him to shrink with Class 5000 rank ability, to an extent that allows him to enter the Microverse.

* Energy Absorption: The Surfer can absorb energy directed at him with a green Psyche FEAT for up to Amazing damage, a Yellow Psyche FEAT for up to Monstrous damage and a red Psyche FEAT for up to Unearthly damage. He can also drain energy from other sources. This energy may be used to power other abilities if needed.

Given the nature and scope of the Power Cosmic, the Surfer may develop other Powers over time.

Body Coating (True Invulnerability): His body is surrounded by a flexible metallic shell that gives him Monstrous protection from physical and energy attacks.

Flight: The Surfer can channel cosmic energy enabling him to fly even without his board up to Power rank speeds in space and Shift-Z max in atmospheres. He rarely does so however being that he can fly effortlessly with his cosmic board.

Life Detection: He has the Unearthly ability to detect the presence of life energies within 500 light years.

Energy Detection: Surfer can dtect any form of energy with Unearthly ability within 500 light years

Telepathy: He has Good telepathy. This is mostly used to communicate when normal conversation is impossible. It also allows him to rapidly learn a new language.

Postcognition: The Surfer has the Poor ability to see events that occurred up to four weeks ago. He must be at the site of the event in order for this power to work.

Enhanced Senses: The Surfers senses of hearing and sight are vastly superior to most beings. He has proven capable of clearly discerning human sized objects in detail a light year away. Hypersensitive Hearing and Telescopic Vision up to 1 light year away.

Cosmic Awareness: The Surfer has certain cosmic energy enhanced perceptions that surround him. Thus he can tune in to the universe and perceive the presence of powerful cosmic entities with Unearthly rank ability.
Life Support: The Surfer does not require food, water, or air since he absorbs life-maintaining cosmic energy directly through his skin. Although his body does not require sleep, his mind still does in order to give it an opportunity to dream. The Surfer’s mind only requires sleep about once ever earth month in order to maintain a healthy mental state. (Class 1000)

Hyper Speed: The Surfer possesses Shift Y Hyper Speed. Powers include:
* Substitute for Fighting for multiple attacks and evading. May make up to 3 combat actions per round.
* Substitute for Agility for dodging and catching projectiles.
* Substitute for Intuition for initiative.
* May reach maximum flight or ground speed in one round and has no penalties making high speed maneuvers or starting or stopping suddenly.

Karmic Tap: This power allows the Surfer to tap into his reservoir of willpower (Karma) and increase his Power Conversion by 1 point for every 2 Karma spent. There is no known limit on his karmic tap abilities. This is limited to the same round in which he spent/converted his karma. Rolling an Red Psyche FEAT roll will permit another round of benefit from the Karma spent. This power is considered a free action, may be done in addition to other actions in the round.

Equipment

The Silver Surfer’s board is a construct of unknown material. It appears to be made from the same reflective material as the Surfer’s body coating. The board is psionically linked to its owner and can automatically respond to his mental commands. It can travel independent of him and return to him if they are separated. When he rides it, the Surfer’s feet automatically adhere to the board’s upper surface. The board has the following powers:

* True Flight: The board can attain Class 5000 speed. Within planetary atmospheres, he moves at Shift-Z speeds.

* Dimension Travel: Once its maximum speed is reached, the board can enter hyper-space to quickly reach any section of the universe.

* Phasing: The board has the Monstrous ability to render itself and its rider(s) temporarily immaterial. This power is used to enable them to pass through a barrier or to travel through space without risking collision damage with spaceborne particles.

* Body Armor: The board has CL1000 Material Strength.

Limitation

Due to the Surfer's high personal moral standard, all Karma losses are tripled.

Talents

Martial Arts D, Space Pilot, Zero G Combat, Speaking Profoundly

Contacts

Galactus, Fantastic Four, Drax the Destroyer, Adam Warlock

This is an amazing write-up, no monstrous! lol But seriously, this is pretty much exactly how I picture the surfer.

Thank you, MoT!

This does seem to captutre the depictions that, while still extremely potent in his 'usual' appearances, Surfer does seem to be quite capable of dialing it up a few notches when things get truly dire.

Great Writeup!

I only question the Endurance rank. I am one of those number guys and the Update of Silver Surfer on the Defenders supplement to the HBOTMU, show him with Superhuman and not Invincibility.

It seems his unearthly regeneration coupled with unearthly endurance is more than enough to show Surfer's Durability. He is regenerating 17 points a round with unearthly endurance vs. 83 points a round with Shift Z.

Judging on his Thor Battle last summer in Thor #2 and some of the stuff he does in the defenders, I do not think his endurance should warrant above Unearthly.

If he has Monstrous True invulnerability (agreed), and regenerates 83 points a round he IS virtually indestructible. That means EVERY round Thor is hitting him with Mjolnir, he is regenerating the entire damage from the blow with a surplus. The Battles between Thor and Surfer have not been written that way.

I would agree his endurance can be raised to that rank by the mechanism you use for him to increase his abilities. So it is possible for his endurance to reach that rank, but I do not think it should be the norm.

Punstarr, great write-up on the Silver Surfer! The only thing I would change is his Endurance rank, otherwise you did an outstanding job updating this character.






The Cutter

Thank you for the praise and the constructive criticism.

The reason I gave the Surfer such a high Endurance was to simulate how unbelievably resilient he is by way of that extra health. As far as regeneration goes, I've never based the rate of recovery on Endurance. Rather, I use the regeneration rank as the effective "Endurance" to determine the rate... otherwise, what's the point of Regeneration having a rank in the first place?

If Superman rates a Shift Y Endurance, in my opinion the Surfer deserves at least the same. Especially since Annihilation.

Punstarr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If Superman rates a Shift Y Endurance, in my
> opinion the Surfer deserves at least the same.
> Especially since Annihilation.
___________________________________________________________

Punstarr, point well made sir! I was thinking according to your updated write-up, with the Ability Boost: The Surfer can augment his physical abilities to Shift-Z for 1-10 rounds. With that being said an Endurance rank of Shift-X (150) or Shift-Y (250) I thought would be a better fit for the overall profile, but you made a good point on Superman with a Shift-Y Endurance or even Gladiator with a Shift-Z Endurance.






The Cutter

Punstar,

Excellent write-up on the Surfer. I believe you have truely captured his power level correctly. I recently ran a mock battle between your Silver-Surfer write up and Skycutters Superman write-up. It was epic but in 8 of 10 matches the Surfer won, truley showing his near cosmic powers. I think his endurance should be Shift-Y as well, this always him to really crank it up when he needs to. If he is stated at Shift-Z there is no room in game mechanics to illustrate his "power boost". I also ran a mock simulation of him versus Thanos. Despite his awesome power levels "even when boosted" Thanos ate his lunch. It illustrates how powerful Thanos actually is. Good job Punstar!!

Punstarr this is awesome! I love how crazy the game can get when the powers are amped up to the levels of the Surfer. That he beat DS's Superman 8 out of 10 times is intense. Love the detail you put into your write-up.

Thanks guys! I do want to point out again though that the writeup is not even mostly my own. I took the existing writeup and gave it a few tweaks to better fit how I saw his stats, but I didn't write uit from scratch or anything like that. Credit to the person who did the original writeup is still due.

I am curious though... based on the consistent beliefs of multiple folks in this thread that the Surfer's Endurance shouldn't be Shift Z, do you guys think Gladiator is statted too high with his Shift Z rank for END? Either way, I'm curious why your opinion of Gladiator is what it is.

Punstarr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am curious though... based on the consistent
> beliefs of multiple folks in this thread that the
> Surfer's Endurance shouldn't be Shift Z, do you
> guys think Gladiator is statted too high with his
> Shift Z rank for END? Either way, I'm curious why
> your opinion of Gladiator is what it is.

We could start a general thread of "Why is So-and-So's stat 'x' while What's-His-Face's stat 'x+1'?" and I bet it would turn into one of the epic threads of classicmarvelforever. I've asked myself this question a hundred times with various characters. For me, a lot of it is that there are official write-ups for characters and I am very cautious about trying to tear down an official write-up. Gladiator has official write-ups and so does the Surfer. That's all there is to it. Of course, they could be wrong and/or improved. And considering how old this game is a lot do need to be brought up to speed.

But in order to definitely "fix" everything that needs fixing you'd need to agree on what we'd use as criteria for the fixes. I think this will only go as far as the arguments you see on every "vs. Battle" forum out there: feats accomplished in comics vs. officially described capabilities never seen, trying to adjust or handicap for characters with very long publishing runs vs. characters rarely seen or brand new, etc. I don't think those things ever get settled. You simply wind up with a site where the majority of the users or The-Powers-That-Be of the site are of one mindset versus another so they go with the one they prefer.

For your specific topic here, I gotta' tell ya': I have no frickin' idea what Shift-Z Endurance would look like even if I was staring right at it lol. I have a philosophical problem with stuff like that honestly. Mental attributes are the worst. When I read something like, "This extra-dimensional demon has Unearthly Reason but this inter-galactic alien over here has Shift-X" I honestly ask myself "What does that even mean?! One dude is '2 steps' smarter than the smartest any person could ever be but the other guy is '3 steps' smarter?!" By definition they are far beyond my understanding. It's like asking a clinical moron to describe the difference in Einstein's Reason versus Newton's.

Bringing it full-circle: they have official write-ups so I would be slow in changing them, but if we did we'd have to agree on in-comic feats we can see versus official declarations of capabilities not shown, and then we'd need to know how the heck Shift-Z Endurance "looks different" than Shift-Y and if either or both of them did enough stuff that "looked" like -Z vs. -Y. Off the top of my head, I doubt you'll ever read a comic and say "oh yeah, Gladiator is definitely '3 steps better' in Endurance than the Surfer". Whatever "3 steps better" than Unearthly is supposed to look like.

P.S.
Oh yeah, good write-up. The Surfer was my first comic book hero I fell in love with. 6 years old at the barber shop with my dad waiting for a haircut and what was in the pile of magazines? Fantastic Four #48.

>>It's like asking a clinical moron to describe the difference in Einstein's Reason versus Newton's.

One liked pudding and the other liked magic.

rileyV Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >>It's like asking a clinical moron to describe
> the difference in Einstein's Reason versus
> Newton's.
>
> One liked pudding and the other liked magic.

Well played sir.

I will answer this soon, though, and you bring up a good point. I am going to study the Gladiator Writeup than see what digital issues I can find with him in it.

I will certainly be getting back to this for purposes of discussion.

Great Writeup!

However, I just noticed that mavel wikia states that the Surfer, despite his great power, is "only an average hand-to-hand combatant"... I always wondered why they gave him Amazing fighting in the old modules, and now with the opportunity to compare him to Superman's stats (who has "only" Incredible" fighting"), I have to say that Amazing Fighting for the Surfer doesn't look very convincing to me.

rastafa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Great Writeup!
>
> However, I just noticed that mavel wikia states
> that the Surfer, despite his great power, is "only
> an average hand-to-hand combatant"... I always
> wondered why they gave him Amazing fighting in the
> old modules, and now with the opportunity to
> compare him to Superman's stats (who has "only"
> Incredible" fighting"), I have to say that Amazing
> Fighting for the Surfer doesn't look very
> convincing to me.

It's because such things don't translate properly between the comics and the game. Since Fighting represents as much ones ability to successfully hit an opponent as anything else you can't really have the Silver Surfer with just Typical or Good Fighting as it simply doesn't cover accurately the ability to hit his targets we see in the comics.

Yes, I'd say that Surfer's great speed and agility probably pushes his fighting skill up a little bit... so, I agree, he certainly shouldn't have Typical or Good fighting.

But should he be better than Superman?

rastafa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, I'd say that Surfer's great speed and agility
> probably pushes his fighting skill up a little
> bit... so, I agree, he certainly shouldn't have
> Typical or Good fighting.
>
> But should he be better than Superman?

Should Superman be so good? Not like he isn't also relying on super-powers to ensure his attacks almost never miss making him a better fighter than he really is without his powers.

Nightmask Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rastafa Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Yes, I'd say that Surfer's great speed and
> agility
> > probably pushes his fighting skill up a little
> > bit... so, I agree, he certainly shouldn't have
> > Typical or Good fighting.
> >
> > But should he be better than Superman?
>
> Should Superman be so good? Not like he isn't
> also relying on super-powers to ensure his attacks
> almost never miss making him a better fighter than
> he really is without his powers.

Okay. Forget Superman. Should Surfer's fighting be better than S'ym's, Moondragon's, Daredevil's, Hulk's?
Or be as good as Captain America?

rastafa Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nightmask Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > rastafa Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Yes, I'd say that Surfer's great speed and
> > agility
> > > probably pushes his fighting skill up a
> little
> > > bit... so, I agree, he certainly shouldn't
> have
> > > Typical or Good fighting.
> > >
> > > But should he be better than Superman?
> >
> > Should Superman be so good? Not like he isn't
> > also relying on super-powers to ensure his
> attacks
> > almost never miss making him a better fighter
> than
> > he really is without his powers.
>
> Okay. Forget Superman. Should Surfer's fighting be
> better than S'ym's, Moondragon's, Daredevil's,
> Hulk's?
> Or be as good as Captain America?


If you think about it for a sec it does make sense. Imagine if your opponent moved in slow motion, so much so that it took a whole minute for him to complete a punch from start to finish. Think about all the ways you could mess him up if you weren't limited to slow motion like him. Even Cap, Moondragon, and Daredevil wouldn't have a chance even 3 on 1.

Silver Surfer can move and react at the speed of light so I imagine only someone with superspeed could properly defend himself. As far as game mechanics go Monstrous with is translated beyond normal ability might be in order. I don't know.

How would he fight without the speed factor. Maybe Poor since his powers are so defining of who he is.

The write-up is very good. Puntsarr made a cosmic character cosmic.

Outcast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rastafa Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nightmask Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > rastafa Wrote:
> > >
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> >
> > > -----
> > > > Yes, I'd say that Surfer's great speed and
> > > agility
> > > > probably pushes his fighting skill up a
> > little
> > > > bit... so, I agree, he certainly shouldn't
> > have
> > > > Typical or Good fighting.
> > > >
> > > > But should he be better than Superman?
> > >
> > > Should Superman be so good? Not like he
> isn't
> > > also relying on super-powers to ensure his
> > attacks
> > > almost never miss making him a better fighter
> > than
> > > he really is without his powers.
> >
> > Okay. Forget Superman. Should Surfer's fighting
> be
> > better than S'ym's, Moondragon's, Daredevil's,
> > Hulk's?
> > Or be as good as Captain America?
>
>
> If you think about it for a sec it does make
> sense. Imagine if your opponent moved in slow
> motion, so much so that it took a whole minute for
> him to complete a punch from start to finish.
> Think about all the ways you could mess him up if
> you weren't limited to slow motion like him. Even
> Cap, Moondragon, and Daredevil wouldn't have a
> chance even 3 on 1.
>
> Silver Surfer can move and react at the speed of
> light so I imagine only someone with superspeed
> could properly defend himself. As far as game
> mechanics go Monstrous with is translated beyond
> normal ability might be in order. I don't know.


And that is what you see in the comics? Really? You know comics where Silver Surfer's fighting style outspeeds Hulk, Thor, Thing? That's funny because I say that his fights are never depicted that way.

The game should simulate what happens in the comics (and not what the comics should be like).

In another forum, there is a very long discussion (15 pages +) about who's the fastest. Nearly all of the people there say that Silver Surfer is one of the fastest when it comes to travelling speed, but he never shows any kind of combat speed like Flash, Quicksilver, Superman or Wonder Woman. So from all the "speedsters" they were discussing, they ranked Silver Surfer pretty low.

"The game should simulate what happens in the comics." An excellent point indeed. Maybe it's best not to try to analyze these things too much. There are so many ways a person can interpret comic superabilities. Rastafa, I think your advice is probably the best advice.

Outcast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "The game should simulate what happens in the
> comics." An excellent point indeed. Maybe it's
> best not to try to analyze these things too much.
> There are so many ways a person can interpret
> comic superabilities. Rastafa, I think your advice
> is probably the best advice.

Unfortunately some get too hung up on being precise about some things and therefore generate headaches because being too precise one way or the other will just end up deviating too much from the comics and the point of playing: to have fun. Fighting in the end simply covers how well you can hit someone, how precisely, and how effectively and some pull that off because they're simply the best at what they do and others thanks to required secondary powers for their main abilities making it possible.

While I really like the idea of simulating what is shown in the comics, I also know that the comics are very often inconsistent. In one story, Doctor Strange tells us that even for him it is impossible to do this and that. In another story, however, he does that impossible thing with ease.

But nevertheless, it is the comics we should look at when designing a RPG which is based on comics. I know that the debates can get heated when we, the fans (or fanboys) fight about details. Sometimes we get carried away, and we should be more calm and analyzing.

So...

Now let's take a look about the depiction of fighting styles in the comics. This is how Spider-Man fights:

Spider-Man outspeeding Thor (Eric Masterson)



Spider-Man outspeeding Hercules



Spider-Man outspeeding Hulk



Keep in mind, Spider-Man is no real "Speedster". He is just a guy with Amazing agility (and a spider-sense). He doesn't have the hyperspeed power.

Now let's take a look how a true Speedster, Quicksilver, fights:



And how Wonder Woman fights:



Are there any such fight scenes from the Silver Surfer? If there are, we would still have to say that only a minority of his battles show him doing such stuff.

I like the Surfer, and I like Punstarr's writeup. However, I come to the following conclusion:

- There is no need for the Surfer having Shift Y hyper speed, as in the writeup above. All the things he does can be explained by Monstrous or Unearthly Agility and Class 5000 flight.
(And if there are really some feats from the comics which can't be explained with that... I'd prefer to give the Surfer the ability to boost himself to hyperspeed for a short time, since he isn't shown that fast normally).
- Spider-Man Remarkable fighting is part of his quickness. Without his Amazing agility, he wouldn't have Remarkable fighting. He isn't a professional fighter (although Shang-Chi taught him to fight following the "Way of the Spider", which is why I'd like to give Spider-Man Martial Arts B ). So you could also say that Surfer's Amazing fighting comes from his quickness too, even if the Surfer isn't such a great hand-to-hand fighter. I have to admit that I'd prefer Remarkable or Phantastic fighting for the Surfer, but I can live with Amazing.

By the way, I like that the writeup brings the Surfer back to Unearthly agility.

He already had Unearthly writeup in a very early stage of the game: the stats overview in the very first player's book listed him as an example for Unearthly agility. After that, however, all modules listed him with only Monstrous agility.

But there are still some other things the Surfer writeup needs:
- Talents: Before becoming a Surfer, Norrin Radd was a astronomer, a scientiest, a philoshoper.He should have talents that show that.
- Passengers he takes with him on his board are always shown as being able to breath and to be immune against the cold of
space.
- As a powerstunt on his energy absorption, he can pull out the gamma radiation of the Hulk and turn him back to Banner. Should work for the other gamma ray people (She-Hulk, Abomination) too.
- He can create force fields and energy shields.



Thats' it for now...

Very detailed and neat write up.

I always like the Surfer's backstory and I always found it interesting that , despite his power, he was essentially Galactus' slave.

The original Defender's were Dr. Strange (as Sorcerer Supreme), the Surfer, Namor and the Hulk. Throw Thor in with that group and no villains need bother showing up to fight.