Mastermind Pool VVP?

[steriaca]

Is it posable to buy followers and bases with a Variable Power Pool? I say, prehaps it is, as it would simulate the late Golden Age and early Silver Age villians rather well (especaly any Batman villian from that time period). But what does FRED say? What do you say?

[pinecone]

I say Why not? though you probibly should add Extra time :"months of rebuilding" to avoid the villian becoming the green lanturn of bases...

[megaplayboy]

well, if you can buy stats with a VPP(and summon, e.g.), you could buy bases and followers--keep in mind those points from the pool are spent as long as the bases and followers exist.

[Fur Face]

I've always presumed that a Mastermind VPP was more of plot device than anything else, to simulate l really powerful villian. Although you can buy followers & funds with this kind of VPP, I would buy them separate if necessary. Otherwise it wouldn't be practical "sorry superagents, you need to go while I muster all of my powers to fight these do-gooding heroes."

[Maccabe]

VPP question answered

 

You are asking about PERQUISITES (perks). I say NO WAY!!!

The fact is that it would GROSSLY unbalance the game. It would allow all PERKS, TALENTS and SKILLS to be changed as a 0 phase action (as though they were powers) to say the least.

 

Examples;

DANGER SENSE,no time to use, any danger,out of combat, any area For 40 pts you have 19 or less.

COMBAT LUCK 20 PD/ ED for 40 pts.

CONTACTS-->You know everyone in the Galaxy, 19 or less

20 pts (Yeah I know him, right after I make my VPP roll)

FRINGE BENEFITS---> You are the leader of anywhere you go.

[head of state, membership, security clearence] 30 pts

MONEY--> Filthy rich is 15 pts.(Unlimited Income).

Imagine 40 pts......

$1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 !!!

 

In less then 1 second, you know the danger, are invulnerable to it, then a friend leads you to a villians lair, with your unlimited political power, and total economic power.

[megaplayboy]

Re: VPP question answered

 

Originally posted by Maccabe

You are asking about PERQUISITES (perks). I say NO WAY!!!

The fact is that it would GROSSLY unbalance the game. It would allow all PERKS, TALENTS and SKILLS to be changed as a 0 phase action (as though they were powers) to say the least.

 

Examples;

DANGER SENSE,no time to use, any danger,out of combat, any area For 40 pts you have 19 or less.

COMBAT LUCK 20 PD/ ED for 40 pts.

CONTACTS-->You know everyone in the Galaxy, 19 or less

20 pts (Yeah I know him, right after I make my VPP roll)

FRINGE BENEFITS---> You are the leader of anywhere you go.

[head of state, membership, security clearence] 30 pts

MONEY--> Filthy rich is 15 pts.(Unlimited Income).

Imagine 40 pts......

$1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00 !!!

 

In less then 1 second, you know the danger, are invulnerable to it, then a friend leads you to a villians lair, with your unlimited political power, and total economic power.

 

You can define a VPP as requiring extensive prep time to change(some gadget and equipment pools take this). Considering this is an NPC writeup, the GM generally has laissez-faire to bend the rules a little bit. Generally mastermind pools are set up to only be changed between adventures. I wouldn't allow perks to be placed or switched around in PC VPPs. Under restricted circumstances I might consider allowing one type of skill to be put in one(think any character from the Matrix, or Taskmaster).

[TaxiMan]

Villians don't ever need power frameworks - they have all the points the GM wishes them to have. An EC or Multipower could be devised to hinder the villian, so drains work more effectively etc. VPPs can be used to reflect that a villian has so many powers that the GM doesn't want to enumerate them all. It's shorthand for "he's got whatever I want to give him."

 

I don't like to do a lot of extra work on my villians. I assume all their powers have "Linked to anything the GM feels is appropriate, -0" to handle drains and stuff. Bases and Followers come and go as the plot dictates - near infinite (within genre and common sense) when the bad guy is on top, dropping as the heros clean house until there's almost nothing left.

 

What I do care about for my villians is power descriptions, power levels, motivations, plans, and how he fits in the grand scheme of things. Very broad brush, with specifics to make him memorable (mostly in personality and motivations). That makes it easy to scale to fit the game - I usually start him off as low-end offensively and uber tough (escape schemes galore). He has legions of mooks or a few supervillians do his dirty work. After a few encounters, I know how much to crank up his offensive abilities and drop in a defensive weakness if required. Especially when the players are creative and figure stuff out about the villian that makes so much sense it has to be right! Whatever makes the game better.

 

In short, I cheat. I don't dictate the outcome of encounters, but I certainly load the dice! The object is to have fun, and that includes me as GM. It ain't fun for me to sweat creating the perfect writeup for a master villian - many times, 95% of the effort is wasted. Worse, I've been trapped with outcomes I didn't want because I messed up the writeup. So I go with 50% concept, and it works fine. YMMV