Post by Deleted on Jan 29, 2017 23:26:38 GMT -5
Hey! Maddwaffles here to write a brief article regarding some of the more thematically difficult Capes and Cowls powers, and start a dialogue on good ways to GM these powers. Some I've picked up in places from other sheets, and others are ideas that I've had. Of course, GM always has final say over what is or isn't allowed in the games, and what they feel is over or under-powered, I'm just throwing out thematic notions and ideas, these are only opinions.
-Power Manipulation: Like..... Nothing if you just glance at the full power, a couple things thrown together that generally improve your physicality, ranks to your powers, and a weird machine powering thing. But by utilizing advantages, and disadvantages you can not only make this a superbly cheap power, but by using it in conjunction with the swift action to activate, you basically have 1:1 Hyper Stats until the next modifier, and a self-overclock. What's even better? To get these ads and disads going you just need 1 level, and it pretty much scales the rest of your character. Depending on the way you do this, your character can effectively get more levels in their powers, beyond the cap already set in place.
Thematically speaking, a few things come to mind. The most obvious being All Might from Boku No Hero, who probably uses an expensive version of this power, removes only DR, Increased PL, and Constitution Boost, to get his other power levels super-high, and then the overclock for even bigger smashes. Others could be particularly powerful benefactors of their powers, even moreso than people who should logically have the same magnitude, The House of El kryptonians are remarkable among their race as a part of the select kryptonian numbers that can fly, and even the other purebreds of New Krypton never really manged to get on Clark's, Kon's, or Kara's, levels, making them exceptional kryptonians. Or this could even be used for boosters, like a Mutant Growth Hormone, or certain factors that would only make sense with this, such as when Magneto absorbed his daughter Lorna's magnetism in order to make himself roughly twice as powerful, despite his level probably not accomodating that on its own. Savants such as Black Bolt might get some use out of this as well. Basically? This is the power for people who have exceptional powers, even for a superhero, or just have a lot of power period.
Mechanically, in low-point games such as crossovers with racials, or games that only allow traits and superior heroics, this is a godsend in using your points efficiently. In higher power games, some GMs have expressed that they disbar its use, simply because unless everyone's using it it's not really going to be an even-footed party. I myself? Only ban it when the setting doesn't accommodate its existence, and very few settings don't. Very good and strong power, makes a god a super-god.
-Hyper Power: This power is literally my wife when it comes to inventing counters to entire parties of heroes. It's in the description, this is the power to have just about every other power. If Cartman from South Park played this system, this is probably the power he'd use. It mathematically increases the number of powers you have from the number you put in, if you want another way just to have cheap powers do the permanent setting disadvantage and you've already got even more points to spend, combo with Power Manipulation is the stuff that Apocalypse is MADE of. Even better, there's a more power get advantage that at roughly the same 2:3 ratio makes your levels in this stronger. The advantages to changing faster can be potentially game-breaking, and if you go with the non-permanent option you can even distribute powers to others. Yeah this shit is basically Apocalypse and I love it.
As mentioned before, if your guy's power is to have powers, this is the power for you, gives you more points than you put in to spend on powers, and based on choice of adv and disadv basically let you change in the heat of battle. Superboy's tactile telekinesis, with certain limmitations, could be applicable under this, as well as Apocalypse's ability to sort of get more powers, though that's a whole thing using celestial tech to channel in existing powers so that could possible be more him HAVING the actual listed powers, it's easier to just stat him this way because there are few powers that bastard doesn't already have. The quintessential guy for this is Marvel's Legion, who basically had sets to go with each personality he experienced, classic not Ultimate, and we can all remember how super powerful THAT villain was.
Haven't HEARD many complaints in my talks with other GMs about this one, probably because it's kind of tough to use this one's versatility on the spot without being a bastard about it and demanding you force people to wait for you while you scour the books for a perfect power catalog for the situation. Additionally, certain caps can be put on the kinds of powers you pick, in order to make sure they adhere to a theme, which a lot of GMs would reasonably award as a disadvantage if the player is a good sport about it. I feel like this is one of those powers that COULD turn fucking messy, but it seems like there aren't many scum-bags who play this system so it works as-is. No-nonsense GMing works out here.
-Transformation: As with the above powers, this is GREAT for building your bosses. Though it's very anime, who would have guessed a power based on a notion from DB is anime, but there are certainly ways to make it go a bit more traditional in regards to comic stuffs. This goes GREAT on Constitution builds, especially when you apply the advantage to particular things, you can use this power to get more super points out of your points spent, though that definitely works better on subsequent iterations of transformation.
So transformations can be defined a few ways, obvious ones being as limiters on someone's abilities being undone in order to keep their body in good shape, such as ninja bodies in Naruto. Agent Venom is a decent example, with his symbiote sometimes hijacking and going "full Venom" in an almost feral rage that while suffering a loss of control, was ultimately a more deadly foe.
In regards to usability, you have to obviously see its viability for high-con regenerators, hyper-stat loves this power, and it provides some versatility. But not much. True it can give you a good set of boosts for certain situations, but since you have to build them prior to use it very much makes it difficult to build for everything, such as hyper-power. Short-term boosts from things like hyper-power or power manip.'s overclock is, at this GM's suggestion, not sufficient to get to rewrite your whole transformation, either require them to have something ready before hand if it's from them, or make it stat-boosts only if it's from an outside source, for the sake of quickness.
-Enhance Self: Make yourself anime? Naw, think more like make yourself Iron Fist, this is basically how you answer chi from comics, and can honestly do so much work for your character in regards to blending the line between a game with races and without races. the 20 points necessary? That's nothing, and honestly pretty cheap given half the reason a lot of racials are good is because they grant access to reiatsu, which in a system like this does so much. A big downer is that without a racial, or at least spiritually aware or ki infused which you MIGHT be able to take but most GMs should probably say no to the latter, you lose out on a lion's share of the options. Additionally, the advantage that makes it a 1:1 boost to your spellscore SPECIFICALLY mentions charisma, and no GM in their right mind is going to let you play with that shit enough to change that advantage. But with access to things like Spellcaster and Martial Study, it hardly matters, those 2 feats alone make this power's purchase #worth it. Aside from chi, you could flavor this to other things, but let's face it, this is chi.
-Enhance Others: Pull a Pyrrha, you can now unlock other people's aur-..... Chi. Good for support, and with the advantage you can give your entire party martial study and spellcaster. If you're more grounded in the world of healing and support, this power is a HUGE buff. Unfortunately, the first line says it all, this is being Pyrrha in ep 3, the power.
-Overclock: The first time I looked at this power I thought "meh" and went about the rest of the book. The more I look at it, however, the more unsettled I get at the notion of a character that can do this. Permanent granting of power levels to another character? That's HUGE, of course the permanent option is really only game breaking at later levels, I'd go with hours, but such a character could do so much. With the above power in mind, as well as this, you're basically a walking source of power for other people to draw from. Also feels kinda anime, and you'd have to flavor it to their specific sort of how they do it, mystic, mutagenic, w/e, but this power is so COOL to give to a DMPC, or someone you have to save/protect.
I am certain at least one specific example of a character with this is out there, but so much technology in this setting, particularly celestial technology, exists with this that basically permanently powers up a mutant's abilities, it's happened to both Warren Worthingtons, after all.
From a GMing perspective, in my mind, THIS is the power to watch, it makes everything else so much stronger, and I would never allow a gadget or widget be made with this power unless there was some huge drawback like turning you into a f***ing furry blue cat-man.
Feel free to discuss and critique below <3
-Power Manipulation: Like..... Nothing if you just glance at the full power, a couple things thrown together that generally improve your physicality, ranks to your powers, and a weird machine powering thing. But by utilizing advantages, and disadvantages you can not only make this a superbly cheap power, but by using it in conjunction with the swift action to activate, you basically have 1:1 Hyper Stats until the next modifier, and a self-overclock. What's even better? To get these ads and disads going you just need 1 level, and it pretty much scales the rest of your character. Depending on the way you do this, your character can effectively get more levels in their powers, beyond the cap already set in place.
Thematically speaking, a few things come to mind. The most obvious being All Might from Boku No Hero, who probably uses an expensive version of this power, removes only DR, Increased PL, and Constitution Boost, to get his other power levels super-high, and then the overclock for even bigger smashes. Others could be particularly powerful benefactors of their powers, even moreso than people who should logically have the same magnitude, The House of El kryptonians are remarkable among their race as a part of the select kryptonian numbers that can fly, and even the other purebreds of New Krypton never really manged to get on Clark's, Kon's, or Kara's, levels, making them exceptional kryptonians. Or this could even be used for boosters, like a Mutant Growth Hormone, or certain factors that would only make sense with this, such as when Magneto absorbed his daughter Lorna's magnetism in order to make himself roughly twice as powerful, despite his level probably not accomodating that on its own. Savants such as Black Bolt might get some use out of this as well. Basically? This is the power for people who have exceptional powers, even for a superhero, or just have a lot of power period.
Mechanically, in low-point games such as crossovers with racials, or games that only allow traits and superior heroics, this is a godsend in using your points efficiently. In higher power games, some GMs have expressed that they disbar its use, simply because unless everyone's using it it's not really going to be an even-footed party. I myself? Only ban it when the setting doesn't accommodate its existence, and very few settings don't. Very good and strong power, makes a god a super-god.
-Hyper Power: This power is literally my wife when it comes to inventing counters to entire parties of heroes. It's in the description, this is the power to have just about every other power. If Cartman from South Park played this system, this is probably the power he'd use. It mathematically increases the number of powers you have from the number you put in, if you want another way just to have cheap powers do the permanent setting disadvantage and you've already got even more points to spend, combo with Power Manipulation is the stuff that Apocalypse is MADE of. Even better, there's a more power get advantage that at roughly the same 2:3 ratio makes your levels in this stronger. The advantages to changing faster can be potentially game-breaking, and if you go with the non-permanent option you can even distribute powers to others. Yeah this shit is basically Apocalypse and I love it.
As mentioned before, if your guy's power is to have powers, this is the power for you, gives you more points than you put in to spend on powers, and based on choice of adv and disadv basically let you change in the heat of battle. Superboy's tactile telekinesis, with certain limmitations, could be applicable under this, as well as Apocalypse's ability to sort of get more powers, though that's a whole thing using celestial tech to channel in existing powers so that could possible be more him HAVING the actual listed powers, it's easier to just stat him this way because there are few powers that bastard doesn't already have. The quintessential guy for this is Marvel's Legion, who basically had sets to go with each personality he experienced, classic not Ultimate, and we can all remember how super powerful THAT villain was.
Haven't HEARD many complaints in my talks with other GMs about this one, probably because it's kind of tough to use this one's versatility on the spot without being a bastard about it and demanding you force people to wait for you while you scour the books for a perfect power catalog for the situation. Additionally, certain caps can be put on the kinds of powers you pick, in order to make sure they adhere to a theme, which a lot of GMs would reasonably award as a disadvantage if the player is a good sport about it. I feel like this is one of those powers that COULD turn fucking messy, but it seems like there aren't many scum-bags who play this system so it works as-is. No-nonsense GMing works out here.
-Transformation: As with the above powers, this is GREAT for building your bosses. Though it's very anime, who would have guessed a power based on a notion from DB is anime, but there are certainly ways to make it go a bit more traditional in regards to comic stuffs. This goes GREAT on Constitution builds, especially when you apply the advantage to particular things, you can use this power to get more super points out of your points spent, though that definitely works better on subsequent iterations of transformation.
So transformations can be defined a few ways, obvious ones being as limiters on someone's abilities being undone in order to keep their body in good shape, such as ninja bodies in Naruto. Agent Venom is a decent example, with his symbiote sometimes hijacking and going "full Venom" in an almost feral rage that while suffering a loss of control, was ultimately a more deadly foe.
In regards to usability, you have to obviously see its viability for high-con regenerators, hyper-stat loves this power, and it provides some versatility. But not much. True it can give you a good set of boosts for certain situations, but since you have to build them prior to use it very much makes it difficult to build for everything, such as hyper-power. Short-term boosts from things like hyper-power or power manip.'s overclock is, at this GM's suggestion, not sufficient to get to rewrite your whole transformation, either require them to have something ready before hand if it's from them, or make it stat-boosts only if it's from an outside source, for the sake of quickness.
-Enhance Self: Make yourself anime? Naw, think more like make yourself Iron Fist, this is basically how you answer chi from comics, and can honestly do so much work for your character in regards to blending the line between a game with races and without races. the 20 points necessary? That's nothing, and honestly pretty cheap given half the reason a lot of racials are good is because they grant access to reiatsu, which in a system like this does so much. A big downer is that without a racial, or at least spiritually aware or ki infused which you MIGHT be able to take but most GMs should probably say no to the latter, you lose out on a lion's share of the options. Additionally, the advantage that makes it a 1:1 boost to your spellscore SPECIFICALLY mentions charisma, and no GM in their right mind is going to let you play with that shit enough to change that advantage. But with access to things like Spellcaster and Martial Study, it hardly matters, those 2 feats alone make this power's purchase #worth it. Aside from chi, you could flavor this to other things, but let's face it, this is chi.
-Enhance Others: Pull a Pyrrha, you can now unlock other people's aur-..... Chi. Good for support, and with the advantage you can give your entire party martial study and spellcaster. If you're more grounded in the world of healing and support, this power is a HUGE buff. Unfortunately, the first line says it all, this is being Pyrrha in ep 3, the power.
-Overclock: The first time I looked at this power I thought "meh" and went about the rest of the book. The more I look at it, however, the more unsettled I get at the notion of a character that can do this. Permanent granting of power levels to another character? That's HUGE, of course the permanent option is really only game breaking at later levels, I'd go with hours, but such a character could do so much. With the above power in mind, as well as this, you're basically a walking source of power for other people to draw from. Also feels kinda anime, and you'd have to flavor it to their specific sort of how they do it, mystic, mutagenic, w/e, but this power is so COOL to give to a DMPC, or someone you have to save/protect.
I am certain at least one specific example of a character with this is out there, but so much technology in this setting, particularly celestial technology, exists with this that basically permanently powers up a mutant's abilities, it's happened to both Warren Worthingtons, after all.
From a GMing perspective, in my mind, THIS is the power to watch, it makes everything else so much stronger, and I would never allow a gadget or widget be made with this power unless there was some huge drawback like turning you into a f***ing furry blue cat-man.
Feel free to discuss and critique below <3