Creative use of superpowers

[tusaboss]

Some day ago, my brother pointed that the Champions rules don't allow to make creative use of superpowers: for example, if I have a character with heat-ray vision, and I use the heat ray to melt the ground under an enemy, I should buy that effect as an entanglement, and I can't use it if I didn't...

It is true or one might be more flexible? And what's the limit of that? (Since it could be abused, as well)

[Trebuchet]

Re: Creative use of superpowers

 

That's exactly the type of clever Power use that is covered by the Skill Power. It allows one or two unusual uses of a Power to do something the character is not normallly able to do. If it becomes a more regularly used trick then it should be purchased with XP as a regular Power.

[MitchellS]

Re: Creative use of superpowers

 

I'd also add to Trebuchet's answer that you can easily just wave the "must buy everything with points" rule and allow players to have more lateral freedom of play as long as you don't feel that it is unbalancing to the game. The points are just there to help maintain some semblance of game balance if you can feel you can maintain that without needing to rely on the points then feel free to do so.

 

5E has become more of a "numbers" game than previous version of the system. Each edition seems to take more free-form away in return for numbers crunching. Things like shockwave attacks and tying people with lamp posts use to be free but under 5E rules should be paid for. I tend to follow the more free-form approach. I think it better emulates the comics and allows for more interesting character play.

[Haven Walkur]

Re: Creative use of superpowers

 

Dr. A (of Hero Board fame) raves over what he calls the "granularity" of the 5th Ed. What he means is that over-arching powers and effects can now be broken down and bought in appropriately-priced pieces. He's my Champions GM, so I've heard his opinion expressed several times, and while I agree generally that granularity is good, as a player, I don't like it.

 

When you have to break a power into pieces and pay seperately for every variant effect, the power quickly becomes very expensive. And a great many things that were previously "taken for granted" as part of a power's effects suddenly have to be spelled out and paid for seperately--or worse, are suddenly just disallowed!

 

The "power stunts" skill just doesn't adequately address the problem. Now there's a NEW layer of debate, over whether or not a certain use of a power comes under the "power stunts" definition, or whether it's been used too often, and now has to be bought as a power...still more drags on the flow of combat, followed by still more "number crunching."

 

Creatively, 5th Ed. does discourage creative _player_ play. I can understand why GMs like it--it gives them a more detailed understanding of what the PCs can do, and more _control_ over it--but as a player, I hate it!

 

Imagine this scene: A hero, beaten to her knees by the villain, suddenly, in desperation, hurls a nearby bucket of water on her. The villain begins to smoke and screech: "You wicked child, I'm melting, I'm--oh, no, wait, did throwing the water count as a power stunt?"

 

Hero: "Uh, no, it was just there, so I threw it."

 

Villain: "Well, how often have you done that in the game?"

 

Hero: "Thrown water? Look, I really don't know. A few times, maybe."

 

Villain: "Multiple times...so you need to buy the "throwing water" power. Or do you already have it?"

 

Hero: "Thowing water? No, I don't have that! And it's not a power--"

 

Villain: "Ah, but you used it as an attack, so...."

 

Might as well surrender, Dorothy. We're using FRED.

[Ki-rin]

Re: Creative use of superpowers

 

My way through this philosophical thicket has been to think of things in terms of reasonableness and energy balance.

 

OF COURSE Dorothy can throw a bucket of water. That's "everyman" territory. About the only way I'd ever make an issue of it in-game would be is IFF Dorothy has a phobia or some other problem with things related to buckets of water.

 

OTOH, when a character wants to use their "powers and abilities beyond that of Normal Man", I hav eto have a yardstick to make sure everything is fair. For me, assuming equivalent energy use, equivalent sfx, and equivalent skill use is it.

 

Flame Lad wants to melt the asphalt under the Bad Guy's feet? OK, how much asphalt? How fast? Right. How many dice of Flame sfx are you using? And then I try my best to let the character do imaginative things that match the ordinary stuff they can do in terms of energy output, sfx, and their skills. Flame Lad never needs a lighter or matches in my campaign...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Creative use of superpowers

 

I do get your point, Haven Walkur, but respectfully I think you're overstating it. As a GM I would no more expect a character to have to pay points to throw a bucket of water than I would expect a supers brick to pay points to pick up a car and throw it. These are free options built into the rules, and explicitly stated as such. If a bucket of water is nearby, and you have enough Strength to lift and throw it, and you succeed in hitting the witch, and the witch is Susceptible to water - goodbye witch, no additions to your Character Sheet required. And of course, in heroic-level games nobody pays Character Points for common weapons and equipment or found items of any type.

 

I've seen this kind of argument over breaking down how things work in HERO before. When that's been the actual play experience of the plaintif it's almost always the result of an unusually stringent GM. Which is a shame, because that experience often colors a person's perception of HERO permanently.

 

The framework allows for a lot more freeform play than many people realize. When faced with so many detailed rules it's easy to overlook that a lot of them are options, for people who want that much detail or a firm ruling to back them up when issues become contentious. You can ignore a lot of that stuff in play and the game will run just fine.