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How Would You Use A Villain Who Has Lots of the Luck Power?


FrancoScarramucci

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I was reading the description of the Luck power and it says is supposed to be a fun, fringe benefit thing and not to be a hero or villain's bread and butter schtick.

It says things like, "Luck should never rule a situation. The GM has full control over Luck. If it is necessary for something to happen, it happens regardless of how much Luck Power a person has. The GM should not feel compelled to let Luck save someone. Luck should not come into play often and should be a pleasant surprise." But what if somebody wants that Luck power to be a hero or villain's signature thing, the same way somebody might spend 60, 70, 80+ points on a blasting powers suite, Power Armor, Martial Arts, stuff like that. That is, have it be featured very prominently many times per combat and day and challenging scenario?

I am looking at a supervillain, Hazard, and he has a significant investment in the Luck skill, 60 points. How exactly would that be adjudicated?

Do you have some pointers for how to use Luck? I like the description of him as a good Hunter or Rival for a player who has given their character a Hunted or Rivalry complication.

I looked in another book and I like the idea of Cumulative Luck rather than d6 for somebody who is going to spend a lot of points into Luck with an advantage. You add the point total up and divide by 6 to get results rather than count 6s.

But this means that Hazard would get 2, 3 and 4+ better Luck results very routinely. How would that look in game if a character got crazy, superheroic luck happen to them and crazy, supervillainous bad luck happen to their rivals? 

 

 

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There are a bunch of powers that could represent Luck Powers beyond Luck. For example, an Indirect, Invisible, Variable FX Blast might be a convenient piano dropping from a roof, or an accidental car crashing into a hero. Alternatively, a Speed or Dex Drain with might represent a sudden slick area, or tripping into something. Lastly, a bonus to DCV or OCV with an Activation Roll might mean a lucky hit or lucky dodge. Hero X is blasting Hazard, but Hazard sees a $5 bill on the floor and reaches down to pick it up, and the attack misses. This is because Hazard made his activation roll on his Lucky Dodge power and gained +5 DCV. ;)

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As to how to use Luck, in a prior campaign I allowed characters with Luck to roll those dice at the start of a combat, counting the BODY rolled as a pool of +1's to hit that the character could use during that combat, and every 6 rolled allowing them a to-hit re-roll.  That worked nicely.  I suppose you could also allow that pool of +1s to be applied to the character's DCV versus a specific attack, or a 6 to be used to force the foe to re-roll an attack (though I didn't do that, nor am I likely to). 


As to actual luck attacks (a high-voltage line snaps and falls onto a target, etc.), those should be bought as actual powers, not just based on the dice of Luck. 

 

Long ago I created a supervillain, Snafu, whose schtick was luck.  IIRC, she had a 60-point VPP that took no time to change, to represent the wide variety of bad luck that could befall a foe.  (She still had to target them, it wasn't a No Conscious Control thing.)

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7 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

Long ago I created a supervillain, Snafu, whose schtick was luck.  IIRC, she had a 60-point VPP that took no time to change, to represent the wide variety of bad luck that could befall a foe.  (She still had to target them, it wasn't a No Conscious Control thing.)

 

Yes, I did the same thing. A VPP of random stuff that helps the character. At one point I had a lightning bolt hit one of her opponents. It was a little cloudy, but the WTF moment was priceless.

 

You can do the "ballet of fortune" like in one of the Superman movies, where Clark steps on a guy coming out of an open manhole etc.

Or naturally occurring Rube Goldberg stuff can take the sting out the power and make the players laugh:

 

"A young woman's bikini top snaps, a guy in a Tesla swerves off the road gawking, hits a fire hydrant, it sprays out and knocks the gun out of your hand as you're about to shoot Snafu."

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5 hours ago, FrancoScarramucci said:

Those are all great ideas, but what about the Luck power specifically? 

 

Could a damaging shot be represented as No Normal Defense and what would be good normal defense against that? Power Defense? Possessing Luck themselves?

 

 

I always had problems with Luck as written, but worked up some pretty lengthy house rules on it in my last campaign. 

 

I don't see why you couldn't have either (or both) as a defense against a NND.

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18 hours ago, FrancoScarramucci said:

But this means that Hazard would get 2, 3 and 4+ better Luck results very routinely. How would that look in game if a character got crazy, superheroic luck happen to them and crazy, supervillainous bad luck happen to their rivals? 

 

I think this, in itself, tells you that the  luck mechanic, RAW, should not be allowed as a major 60 point power.

 

You can use it as a starting point for a luck based character or as a supplement to a variety of other mechanics with luck as SFX.

 

I think luck is a difficult SFX to roleplay and if it is consistent, then it is not luck as we know it, it is probability enhancement.

 

Doc

 

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I have to agree with the previous posters.

Using "luck" as a special effect would be fine, and with some Luck as a power thrown in, it would be a perfectly good build for a villain.

 

However, to me, a villain that was based on a massive amount of the Luck power may as well be called Professor GM Fiat.

 

If you have too many players and would like to reduce or eliminate your group, this may be a way to go, otherwise, not so much.

 

Imagine being a player who had to face a villain whose build was basically "You are going to do stupid things which are beyond your control (slip on banana peels, fall down manholes, have your own gun go off in your face like Daffy Duck) and there is basically nothing you can do about it because it is not built on regular powers, it is built on "whatever the GM decides, happens to you".

 

I am sure some people here remember C.L.O.W.N. most players did not find them funny.

 

And if it were not played for laughs, it would be even worse.

"Spider-Man you were swinging a 25d6 Haymaker at Luckmaster when Aunt May was tossed from a Senior Tour bus right in front of your fist. Maybe you can sell enough pictures of the fight to pay for her funeral."

 

Contrast the above with a Villain whose Special Effect is luck, but who has quantifiable powers that can be dealt with.

 

Lucky Shot (Armor Piercing on his main attack, perhaps with an Activation Roll) He just happens to hit you in a place that does more damage.

Lucky Break (Damage Reduction or even Missle Deflection or Reflection) Your shot only grazes him or bounces off.

Lucky Knack (Some type of repair skill or Security Systems based on hitting something in the right spot like The Fonz)

 

Another character could have those same abilities and not be an obnoxious game-wrecker, and there is no problem with them being based on "luck' for this character.

 

But just having massive amounts of the Luck power seems like a recipe for misery.

 

KA.

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  • 2 weeks later...

A concept for your consideration is that the "villain" is really just an ordinary-looking guy or gal who's a bit naive and tags along with a villain that indirectly taps into that person's luck to accomplish his or her criminal goals or avoid trouble from the heroes. Basically, he or she is a "living lucky charm" for that villain. Some examples:

 

1) The villain breaks into a sophisticated vault storing some type of invaluable artifact and because of the luck of the other, all of the alarms, backups, and fail safes all mysteriously malfunction at the same time. Police cars that pursue afterwards stall due to engine failure from a rare malfunction, and so on.

 

2) Heroes' devices mysteriously malfunction or spoken spells invoked aloud are misspoken from a fly that slips into his or her mouth at the critical moment and cause problems ("Klatuu....barada...niktooooo....uh-oh...!")

 

3) The "luck" causes small misfortunes around them to happen (car accidents, hotdog carts that malfunction and explode, etc.), drawing the heroes' attention away to rescue and save lives and enable the villains to escape.

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I had a villain with 'luck' as a power, which was really probability manipulation.  She had a Multipower with various luck-based abilities that would cause weapons to jam (Dispel), people to trip (Change Environment), cause unfortunate accidents (Indirect Blast with Variable SFX), and let her miraculously dodge almost anything (Desolid).  She could have been really annoying, but she was something of a Robin Hood type so she wasn't really evil, just a thief, and she even helped the heroes on occasion.  She wasn't much of a fighter, and mostly just tried to escape from the heroes, so in the end she wasn't much more frustrating than a villain with Teleport who blinks away at the last minute.  Also, it was clear that she was the cause of the 'lucky' events, so it had the feel of the villain using her powers rather than GM fiat which I think makes a big difference.

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