Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

[KA.]

When I play (and GM) Champions, I am trying to recreate the (Silver Age) genre of comics as closely as is fun for my players and I.

 

One thing that seems to come up quite often in discussions of comics is the seemingly 'immortal' nature of many supervillains.

 

You can 'see' them 'die' in massive explosions, active volcanos, huge bursts of radiation, etc. and yet they keep coming back.

 

And usually with some half-baked explanation of how they managed to do it.

 

"It was a robot double that you destroyed. I was too busy at the time to be bothered with facing you personally."

"Oddly enough, at that very moment, a hugely powerful extradimensional being summoned me to his dimension."

"The dog ate my homework."

 

Okay, the last one doesn't show up that often, but you get the idea.

 

Now in Champions, we have a bit more knowledge of what goes on 'behind the scenes'.

 

We know the OCV and DCV and Damage Classes of Attacks.

We can know darned well that our Energy Blast won't 'kill' that normal (reduce them to -BODY) because we know how much BODY our attack can do.

 

We also can make assumptions about what a villain is capable of.

 

"Hmmm. All his powers seem technological. That means that if we hit him with my EMP grenade, he won't be able to teleport away like he did last time."

 

Now I am not looking for a way to 'screw' my players. I don't do that anyway, and if I did the following would neither enable or prevent me from doing so.

But every so often, a Player starts getting a bit 'rules obsessed'.

Rather than trying to play his character and 'beat' the bad guy, he starts wanting to 'beat' the game.

As in, "I can come up with a way to ensure my character is unbeatable by carefully studying and exploiting the rules."

While I have no problem with 'efficiency' or with players who want to understand and properly follow the rules, I see that as turning Hero into a 'war game' where the player is on one side and the GM is on the other.

As Alton Brown would say, I don't know what that is, but it definately is not Good Eats.

 

While reading some of the Marvel Essentials series, I had an idea.

 

Why not use "Writer Fiat" as the SFX for certain villainous powers?

 

I am especially thinking of things like Regeneration from Death.

 

It doesn't happen because of Fire Powers or Ice Powers or even Genetic Manipulation.

 

When a Silver Age Villain comes back, it is because the writer wanted him to come back.

 

Writer Fiat.

 

A perfectly reasonable SFX for something we see in comics all the time.

 

KA.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

I don't know if you have to say it's the SFX of any particular power. I'd just say it's part of the genre conventions - after all it can work for heroes as well. Wonder Man coming back to life because he "wasn't really dead, just in a death-like state we couldn't recognize while his body adjusted to his ionic power" for example.

 

If it makes for a better story, do it. Heck, a lot of the time, the "no one could survive that!" explosion is one of the best "escape plans" a villain can have.

 

If you want something more concrete, I would still avoid putting it into stats - that just encourages the wargamer/beat the game mentality. Soon you'll have the players in question wanting to buy drain regeneration, only affects writer fiat regen from death. The spiral would continue.

 

Instead, maybe do it as a challenge for the players, and maybe you'll get some good plot seeds out of it. "OK, Luthor succumbs to the K-poisoning and dies. He's buried two days later in a massive tomb complex he set up before he died. Everyone write up a brief description of at least one way he could come back and give it to me next session. If I ever bring him back, I may use one of those options."

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

depends on the players, some might be upset to see a supervillian come back (i know in the low fantasy game we've been wanting to kill this guy for about a semester now), but in a champions game, the players might take it in stride as genre convention

[OddHat]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

No reason to write it up. Just use GM's Fiat.

 

Just IMO, this would screw up immersion for me. I like to feel like my character is in the Real World from his point of view, not a comic book, game or action movie. For me to say to the players "It's a genre convention, and we're following it" is one thing; for the character to say that is bad roleplaying, in the context of the games I like to run.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

In the FtF campaigns I've run the phrase "No One Could Have Survived That!" became a good natured chant uttered by the players whenever an uber-baddie perished in a fiery explosion/burst of hyper-dimensional radiation/fell into the heart of a star/whatever. It's so ingrained into the genre that we just accepted it at face value... if the author (GM) wants a villainous character back for a plot, the villain returneth. Not once did the players complain about this, and everyone had a grand old time.

 

Closest time I ever came to a player complaint about this was the issue they had with Scorpia murdering Foresight (from Allies), who the PCs had taken a liking to as a benign (and relatively harmless) NPC... they made darn sure that Scorpia got her sentence of lethal injection carried out, even going so far as to track her down in San Muerte and drag her back to Stronghold when Terror Inc. broke her out. But nobody uttered even a groan of protest when Professor Muerte showed up with a cloned Scorpia months later (the guy leading the crusade to bring her in set the tone with 'well, Scorpia died in Stronghold... this is Scorpia v2.0').

 

I think 'Writer's Fiat' is a perfectly reasonable way to hand wave this sort of 'sfx'. The GM is telling a story, after all... should come with a few author's privs.

[OddHat]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

I think 'Writer's Fiat' is a perfectly reasonable way to hand wave this sort of 'sfx'. The GM is telling a story, after all... should come with a few author's privs.

 

I agree; however, it's important (for my style of game) that the GM declare "It's a genre convention"; the bad guys or heroes should never, in character, say "It's a genre convention" outside of a comedy campaign.

 

YMMV.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

I made a villain with a power along those lines not too long ago; with a massive VPP to essentially script events as necessary.

 

167 Plot Adaptation: Variable Power Pool (Jobber Pool), 90 base + 77 control cost, No Skill Roll Required (+1), Powers Can Be Changed As A Zero-Phase Action (+1) (225 Active Points); Powers Change Only To Conform To Events (-1/2), All Powers Must Be Subtle and Coincidental (-1/4)

 

http://www.killershrike.com/MillennialMen/Villains/MiscVillains/Alex%20Abraxas.html

[pinecone]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

Summon: Copy of character that died, Incanttations "Nobody could have survived that!" No cost, everyone has it for free.......

[KA.]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

I agree; however, it's important (for my style of game) that the GM declare "It's a genre convention"; the bad guys or heroes should never, in character, say "It's a genre convention" outside of a comedy campaign.

 

YMMV.

 

OddHat,

I didn't get back to this thread until just now, but I completely agree.

I see the "Writer Fiat" as something on a character sheet for my use, not how the character sees himself.

The same way that a character would never say:

"I am unleashing my 14d6 Energy Blast!"

but would say something like:

"Feel the power of my Proton Blaster!"

 

I just thought of another nice variation on this theme:

Regeneration from Death - SFX : Egomania!

 

You know, for villains that always return from death spouting things like:

"You actually thought your pathetic powers could have destroyed me?

I am destined to rule this planet!

Nothing you do could change that!"

 

KA.

 

P.S. Thanks to everyone who replied for the comments. I am getting ready to study for midterms, or I would post more replies. I should be back on the boards in a day or so.

[steriaca]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

Humm...I just thought up another Writer Fiat power...Desolification VS Attack only with the limitation "Only To Protect Agenst Attacks He Thinks Will Not Work Agenst Him".

 

"Did you realy think your puny powers can hurt me!!!"

[Vorsch]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

Champions....sorry Hero encourages rules abuse. The character generation system is built on it.

 

The whole mechanics vs sfx positively promotes it.

 

whats wrong when the player wises up and does it himself.

 

eg

 

wind blast AAR Eb

 

Wind Blast AAR Tk

 

By hero rules completely fair, as there is no one true way to describe anything.

 

the hero with KB res is going to feel irked when he can resist a tornado from one character and the blown off his feet by the next ( purely mechanics ) strong breeze.

[zornwil]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

KA, is writing "Writer's Fiat" any different than not writing anything at all for SFX? I'm not so sure - isn't the absence of writing SFX simply an indication of "because I like this guy to have this power", which is tantamount to Writer's/GM's fiat?

 

That being said, I can understand doing that. But I don't think of it that way, personally. I think of it as the NPC either has a "real" reason to escape his would-be fate or I (or we) end up liking the NPC so much that there's a desire to bring him back later, in which case it's after-the-fact and any "writer's fiat" wasn't conceived of on the sheet, anyway.

 

And midterms in July? Regardless, best of luck!

[CBikle]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

I've simulated this effect this way:

 

Criminal Mastermind: 9d6 Luck, only to prevent capture in the 1st act or to evade capture at end of scenario(-1/4) active pts: 45) Real Cost:36

 

The number of "6"s will determine the success as per luck and the degrees might look something like this:

 

1 pt of luck:

Villain "escapes" by falling/pushed into into own volcano, alligator pit or

doomsday machine- villain may very well be deceased and if he returns, he'll be in really bad shape (brain in tank; horribly disfigured; "good";even more mental, etc) or he may well be an imposter.

 

2 pts. of luck:

Villain "escapes" but is apprehended by 3rd party (powerful cosmic being who wants to include the villain in his "space zoo", secret govt. organization, rival super-villain).

 

3 Pts. of luck: Villain makes clean escape through secret tunnel or hidden escape pod. The method of escape may be trackable and the villain may be caught up to at GMs discretion.

 

4 pts. of luck: Villain escapes and gets to gloat about it. This may be through a robot decoy, hologram, teleport ring, etc.

 

The above are just rough examples.

[zornwil]

Re: Writer Fiat as SFX for Supervillains?

 

I use Luck a lot for the Artless Dodger (after the Bob Burden one from Flaming Carrot comics). Luck is one of the best allies for characters one wants to keep alive but have at least something both rational and reasonably objective.