a VPP for bricks.

[BoneDaddy]

Here's my problem - I'm creating a Brick, and he's a plain and simple brick - he's really strong. That's it. Not made of cement, not from planet Vesuvious, doesn't weigh nine tons, only 6'6" tall, ordinary heroic guy who happens to be extremely strong. I was working on a bag of brick tricks - novel powers derived from a guy being terribly strong. The problem is I can't have everything that I want (cry for me!)

 

Here's my solution - A VPP based on powers with a Strength based special effect. Sounds OK, but what about the various permutations of the strength characteristic itself? If I want to put his strength characteristic into the VPP, is that so wrong? It would allow me to use his strength for attack purposes with whatever advantages that I could want while remaining cleanly below the AP max for the campaign. It would allow me to use a lot more strength for other superheroic purposes (lifting an airplane, etc.)

 

The drawbacks - Strength adds into a lot of figured characteristics. My figured characteristics could fluctuate wildly. I could fudge things to add more stun as needed, just by adjusting my VPP. Of course, by adding the appropriate limitations the VPP could be segregated from the figured characteristics.

 

Whaddya think, herodome assembled? Is it a good idea, a great idea, or a terrible idea? From a mathematical perspective, I can do it for about the same price as a multipower and a seperated strength characteristic.

[Gary]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

If you put a characteristic in a VPP, you automatically get no figured characteristics from it. Page 92 of Fred. It also states that placing characteristics in frameworks other than multipowers are GM permission only.

[Vondy]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

Gary covered figured characteristics.

 

I would write the description even more narrowly:

 

Only for strength tricks

 

or

 

Add a lim: cannot add damage

 

This way the GM (unless you are the GM) doesn't have to worry about it being a damage cap loophole. You can do all sorts of wild things (sonic claps, wrap ups, extended lifts, throw it into orbit, etc) without saying, gosh - here comes an extra 8 dice of damage sucker.

[BoneDaddy]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

Right! This is what I was after - not a "cheat," so much as a way to have 50 AP of raw strength with which to slap, or 50 AP of autofire penetrating jackhammer attack, or a fastball pitch with a wrecking ball. Being able to add much more strength to stop that powerful locomotive fits the genre, but doesn't break the game (I think?).

[JakSpade]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

I played a martial artist character once who had a 60 pt multipower with a bunch of multi slots, which were a bunch of stats (STR, DEX, CON, STUN, REC, etc), which was a fun character to play. I could either be really strong, or really fast, or really tough, and any combination in between. My character once got into a brawl with a bunch of agents being lead by a mentalist. The agents kept me busy, while the mentalist kept hitting me with his Ego Attack, which caused me to constantly switch my multipower points into STUN... which made me get weaker and weaker... by the time I was "done", I was just a normal dude, who had taken almost 100pts of stun... I couldn't switch my multipower off... the character might have been illegal, but was a blast to play...

 

Jak

[JmOz]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

Another option to consider:

 

Just give him a naked Variable advantage on his strength, about a +1/2 (+1 total) will surprise you in the versitility:

 

Reduced End 0

Explosion

Accurate

AP

Penetrating

 

That's off the top of my head

[Bengal]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

what Jim said. My last campaign's brick was 50 str with a naked advantage multipower on it in order to do a lot of things, such as AoE: Hex (super-swat), 0 End, AP, and things of this nature, as well as holing his breath (super-stong lungs) a couple of different kinds of leaping, major transform: coal into diamond; minor transform: write messages into hard surfaces with his fingers; Missile deflection (bounce bullets off of his rock-hard chest), and things of this nature. The whole MP was about 75 points. Left plenty of room for skill levels and all kinds of stuff. I think he started as a 330-point character (350 max for this campaign), and didn't put too many extra points into fighting abilities as he went along. He was as effective, and moreso, than some 75-point bricks I have seen.

[Sean]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

Multipower is much less of a headache than VPP in my opinion. Plus, really, is there an infinite variety of strength tricks that you know, or is it more logical that you have a fixed repertoire of moves? You can always buy new moves later with experience. The variable advantage on STR idea is also very clever.

 

I just hate VPPs unless circumstances really call for one.

[BoneDaddy]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

The naked variable advantage bumps up against the campaign AP limit. A VPP allows me to work around the limit without breaking it. The thing about strength tricks is that it doesn't have to be a fixed repertoire, like a martial art. A super strong guy doesn't have to learn how to bash through walls or lift city buses, or even how to write messages in stone with his finger (neat trick!) he just can, because he's really strong.

[The Mad GM]

Re: a VPP for bricks.

 

Steve Long's next project is the Ultimate Brick, so if you can be afford to wait, you will have some canon answers, soon.

 

Barring that, I'd say you buy your strength normally, and any powers as powers in the VPP, not as strength. Energy blast no range, 1 hex for the big swat, Telekinesis, AoE Cone, only to Push or Pull, for superbreath, or whatever. And if you want extra strength for that 'save the day push' you could either buy striaght strength or Aid to Strength.