So it takes a lot of powers to make a super hero game. And beyond that, it takes a fuck tonne of power names for relatively similar uses of powers that characters can have as signature moves. After all, the characters in question may indeed be two lightning aspected Blasters, so there need to be enough lightning moves that they can feel different. It's not OK if they both end up having to take Thunder Strike as their big finishing move because there aren't any other finishing moves for a Lightning Blaster to have.Talisman wrote:I like writing up new powers/spells/feats/edges.
The goal is to write up enough maneuver names that people can make a fairly unique character no matter what character type they chose.
When drawing up a power, keep in mind the kind of attack that it is, and that giving a single character too rainbow of a set of attack options is potentially unbalanced:
Defenses
“You can tell by the way I use my walk that I'm a woman's man. No time to talk.”
- Dodge The character is really fast, incredibly intuitive, or just highly trained. Most attacks do not connect. It is an effective defense against Power and Shadow attacks (which have a tendency to be slow and easier to dodge), but it's an ineffective defense against explosions or mental attacks (as they aren't readily sidestepped).
- Force Field The character has a force field. Maybe it's shining energy, a distortion in the air, or only shimmeringly visible when resisting an attack, but it's always there. It is an effective defense against Electricity and Ice attacks as they are disrupted by the energy of the field; but Gas and Laser attacks are strong against it (as gas and light pass through fields normally).
- Magic Shield The character is protected by defensive spells, charms, and sorcerous counterspells. This type of defense is best against Magic and Gas attacks for which counterspells are most effective; but Speed attacks usually land before utterances can be made and Ice attacks dampen magic as effectively as heat.
- Psychic Wall The character's psychic powers put up a barrier around his mind and body that clouds and dampens incoming attacks. This is most effective against attacks with light (Laser) and Mental power, and is at its least effective against attacks that disrupt the mind (Electricity) or which are already made of darkness (Shadow).
- Toughness The character is simply nigh invulnerable and shrugs off attacks without injury. This may be from powerful armor or merely personal damage resistance. This is most effective against attacks that rely on surety of impact such as Explosions and Speed attacks, and is at its worst against overwhelming attacks such as Power attacks or Magic attacks that target the spirit directly.
- Cold Cold is merely the absence of heat, but in superhero land there are ice beams and freeze rays that turn people into popsicles. These attacks dampen magic and are good against Magic Shields, but weak against Force Fields.
- Electricity Electricity is fairly self explanatory I should hope. It is strong against Psychic Wall and weak against Force Fields.
- Explosion Generally speaking, this damage type is held by burning things. Incendiaries, grenades, houses on fire – that sort of thing. It is weak against targets with Toughness, and strong against Dodging targets.
- Gas Poisonous gas gets into things and poisons people. Surprisingly, many suits that will keep a man safe in vacuum will not protect them from Gas attacks because the gas attacks are corrosive. These attacks are at their best against Forcefields, and at their weakest against Magic Shields.
- Laser Laser light should be fairly self explanatory. It often comes out of blasters that go “cue cue” and such. It is strong against Force Fields, and weak against Psychic Wall.
- Mind Crush Some attacks destroy the mind, which only affects things that actually have[/] minds, for good or ill. This is weakest against Psychic Wall and strongest against Dodge.
- Power We aren't talking about electrical power, or psychic power, but rather raw physical force. Super Strength or running people over with a dump truck produce power attacks quite frequently. These go right through superior Toughness, but are weak against Dodging enemies.
- Spirit Magical power ad some psionics and super tech has the ability to directly attack the spirit. These attacks have no effect on inanimate objects, which is both good and bad from the standpoint of the attacker, depending upon what you want to do. It is weak against Magic Shield, and strong against Toughness.
- Speed Speedsters can zoom around at high speed hitting people many times with rapid fists. This is a speed attack. Also bullets, and pretty much anything else that is of primary damaging capability because of its velocity rather than its mass. It is weak against Toughness, and strong against Magic Shields.
- Shadow Shadow is negative energy. It comes in the form of gravity, void, or magical darkness. It sucks rather than pulls, and is accompanied by background music with low tones. It is strong against Psychic Wall and weak against Dodge.
So here are the power categories:
Powers
Maneuvers come in three types: Adventure maneuvers can be used just once in an Adventurer. For ease of reference, these maneuvers are titled in Bold Red. Charge maneuvers become unusable once used until they recharge during a Recovery phase. These maneuvers have a Recharge number on them that determines their chance of being restored during a Recovery phase, and they are titled in Bold Blue. And finally there are Unlimited maneuvers that can be drawn on however many times or as continuously as need. They are titled in Bold Green.
Some archetypes have Power Choices associated with them. This occasionally makes demands on what maneuvers they can have, but usually it merely influences certain effects of their maneuvers. For example, a Blaster can choose to have their powers be Laser, Lightning, or Fire based as exemplified by the iconic Blasters Positron, Thunderhead, and Brushfire respectively. Many maneuvers available to Blasters will have a specific effect based on which is chosen (for example: the Energy Bolt maneuver does Explosion damage for Brushfire, Laser damage for Positron, and Electricity damage for Thunderhead); but some maneuvers will have outright restrictions on what power options are required before they can be taken (Thunderhead can learn the Thunderclap maneuver, and Positron can learn Anti-Light Matrix).
Blaster Maneuvers
A Blaster's powers are focused around a type of energy that they blast with. Any maneuver that states “Power Option” as its Attack Type is an Electricity attack if used by a Blaster with the Electrical Powers option, an Explosive Attack if used by a Blaster with the Fire Powers option, and a Laser Attack if used by a Blaster with the Light Powers option.
Brick Maneuvers
A Brick's powers either come from intense strength or tremendous skill. A maneuver with “Power Option” as an attack type is Power for Strength Bricks, and Shadow for Martial Artist Bricks.
Cape Maneuvers
Regardless of what power option a Cape takes, their maneuvers are fixed in type (almost always Power, Speed, or Laser).
Controller Maneuvers
A Controller's powers are focused on what they control. Any maneuver with “Power Option” as an attack type is Cold for a character with the Ice Control Power Option, Shadow for a character with the Gravity Control Power Option, and Power for a character with the Plant Control Power Option.
Gadgeteer Maneuvers
A Gadgeteer's powers are focused on the technological level of his gadgets. Any maneuver with “Power Option 1” as an attack type is Explosion for a character with the Steam Gadgets Power Option, Gas for a character with the Oil Gadgets Power Option, and Electricity for a character with the Nuclear Gadgets Power Option. Any maneuver with “Power Option 2” as an attack type is Power for Steam Gadgeteers, Speed for Oil Gadgeteers, and Laser for Nuclear Gadgeteers.
Mentalist Maneuvers
A Mentalist's choice of power options does not affect the type of attacks that a maneuver counts as. Whether they have the Extraplanar, Crystals, or Mad Maths Power Option, a Telekinetic Smash is still a Power Attack and an Ego Whip is still a Mind Crush.
Monster Maneuvers
Few of a Monster's attacks vary based on Power Option. However, those special moves that do change are Laser for Space Monsters, Mind Crush for Astral Monsters, and Explosion for Demon Monsters. Most attacks are Shadow or Power.
Sorcerer Maneuvers
A sorcerer is defined by their signature magical abilities, but individual spells do not change attack types based on the Power Option chosen.
Speedster Maneuvers
Suit Maneuvers
Like Gadgeteers, a Suit is defined by its technological level.
Movement Powers
“It's not when you get there, it's how you get there.”
Every character has access to a signature movement ability. Characters do not get two movement abilities nor do they get to trade their movement powers in for something else. This is not because every masked hero has had exactly one – indeed Superman quite famously has super speed and flight while The Green Hornet merely “owns a sweet car.” However this is a fairly important game play demand. The running battlefield that super heroes fight in is simply too massive and, well, mobile for a character to be able to contribute just standing around. And it's not just battlefields either. Crime happens on the other end of Manhattan all the time, and your character needs to be able to do something about that. Characters in single author fiction can often be carried by their flying compatriots, but that's really just unreasonable to demand in a cooperative storytelling game. Of course, this very same argument falls down when we're talking about Villains. The opposition really doesn't need to be able to deploy in a hurry, because the action starts wherever they happen to be robbing a bank or taking hostages. So while movement powers are not optional for heroes, they are optional for villains.
- Acrobatics – characters with Acrobatics have super leaping, rope swinging, and/or climbing abilities. This is one of the slower ways for a super hero to cross the city, but it is also one of the safer. Characters with acrobatics abilities can catch themselves when falling or hurled into things better than other characters, and take less damage from falls and knockback.
Flight – characters who can fly can fly. They move through the air by their own impetus. This may be because of wings, jet packs, magic powers, or simply no reason (like Superman). Whether it uses props or not is largely a special effect – in any case flight fails if the character loses control over their movement. A flying character can hover if she wishes, but if dazed or entangled, she falls to the ground.
Speed – characters with super speed are able to move ridiculously fast. We're talking so fast that gravity physically can't pull their feet back to Earth fast enough for them to be able to continue taking steps while running at that speed. But it works anyway, and it does so for no reason. Maybe it's time manipulation, or psychic impulse or something, but mostly it relies heavily on Comic Science. The key features of Super Speed is that it goes very fast but it doesn't allow characters to move far away from surfaces.
Teleportation – characters with teleportation are able to move from one place to another without traveling through intermediate space. This is, of course, the fastest possible movement method, but it can't be used continuously so the maneuverability isn't up to any of the other movement powers.
Not every power is directly associated with an archetype. Indeed, every character has a little flair that crosses over what their archetype normally does and into unique territory. Game mechanically this is represented by Elective Powers – powers that don't really have as much impact on a character as the core abilities like super speed or strength. Most notably, an elective power has many less associated maneuvers with it, providing just a couple of uses in a character's story.
Elective Movement Powers
“Dude, I'm the Marquis of the Seas.”
Crime hunters have access to a certain number of elective powers, and some of them are classified as movement powers. These powers are not always useful for chasing down criminals so these are in addition to the normal one super movement power that every character is required to have, not a replacement.
- Dimension Shift – the character is able to move to one or more of the alternate worlds.
Insubstantiality – characters who can move insubstantially can pass through walls like a ghost. This is great for getting past barricades, but it doesn't inherently get you there any faster than just walking normally would.
Swimming – characters with swimming are able to move through the water at excessive speeds.
Tunneling – characters with tunneling can move through solid matter leaving a tunnel behind that others can see and even walk through. This sort of worm movement is actually quite slow, but it can be hard to catch up with.
So anyway, a whole fuckety fuck tonne of abilities have to be written up. Like seriously crazy amounts. And if people want to start throwing in ability names for some of these, that would be great.
Example: Let's say you have the Teleportation movement option. That means that you can vanish from one place and appear in another place. Now some characters are going to want to be able to use that as some kind of crazy defensive action where they start phasing in and out like a blink dog. And that can be called "Blink." And another Teleporter might want something where they cash it in to teleport in behind someone and sucker punch them - and that can be called "Telepounce." I'm easy. The point is that there need to be enough teleport related abilities for teleporters to feel different. Just as there need to be enough gadgets n the list that two Oil Gadgeteers won't end up throwing the same kinds of gas bombs all the time.
-Username17
