Compensating for PC Abilities

[Weldun]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

Detect Truth? As long as it's not discriminatory, it doesn't let people know when someone is lying to them, because it's not Detect Lie, it's Detect Truth, half truth's are wonderful. I'm probably mis-quoting here but, "A lie that is in part truth, is blackest of all."

 

And as Mr Johnston pointed out, stealth opposes sight and sound, and persuasion strikes me as the interaction skill for lying.

[David Johnston]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

Um... nope. That one has never come up' date=' actually. I'm not entirely sure that's something I'd allow in a supers game. I'd have to think about it a bit though.[/quote']

 

Well, the problem with it is that it makes death an inconsequential nuisance. Even in comics it shouldn't be devalued that much. On the other hand, Regeneration from death is another matter. I've had/seen characters with that.

[Arkham]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

Anyone allowed Resurrection in their game? How'd it go?

 

Only once, from a mystic's VPP. And after thinking about it a moment, decided that it would F*** the universe up too much to have that freely available. So that was the last time.

 

I still allow it in a self-only form, for the wide variety of people who can be mauled and maimed but cannot die, but not in a form that can be used on other living creatures.

[Weldun]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

Anyone allowed Resurrection in their game? How'd it go?

Sorry' date=' Blue, I missed the question. I have, and continue to do so, but, I [b']demand[/b] that either

• the means of preventing the resurrection be obvious or easily figured out. Example: A Vampire. There are enough stories for the oponent to figure it out.
  
• the means of resurrection require external influence. Example: I allowed a character called "The Phoenix." He had been slain by a VIPER Steel Serpent, (5th Ed. had just come out), and none of the party knew about the ability, not even the players. They decided to cremate the body and Fwoosh! The Phoenix was eventually killed and buried in Antarctica, and the PC's flubbed the recovery mission.

[Blue]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

I do, btw, have one character with such a power in my game. The restrictions on it are a high chance of Burnout, and a "within one hour of death" limitation.

 

Of course he hasn't tried it outside the hour. I'm considering that if he tries it he'll get some kind of zombie or soulless evil

[Dr. Anomaly]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

I'm probably mis-quoting here but' date=' "A lie that is in part truth, is blackest of all."[/quote']

I remember one along those lines that goes:

 

"The closer to the truth, the better the lie; and the truth itself, when it can be used, is the best lie of all."

[Ragdoll]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

Let's say you let a player have a power that is a little tough to deal with in general. A few exmples might include:

• Entangle Based on ECV
  
• Small EB Based on ECV (does BODY), around 3D6
  
• Detect Truth
  
• Fairly High Powered Telepathy

Now these turn out during game play to be powers that do quite a bit to derail adventures. The first ability winds up letting the player freeze a big threat or three so that everyone else can gang up on those left to fight; The EB slowly pecks away at someone who no one else seems to be able to hurt; The characters always know that the NPCs aren't being straight with them; The players manage to dredge up big pieces of the hidden plot from the minds of their victims.

 

As a GM, you have a responsibility to make things more difficult on your players. If they waltz through scenarios then its not all that rewarding for them. On the other hand, if villains start showing up with High EGOs, with special powers of deception, with Resistant Mental Defense, it's a cheat to the hero to some degree that his powers stop being all that functional.

 

I realize this is why they put the caution and stop signs in the book, but curing play sometimes something proves more troublesome than expected.

 

How do you handle the powers that seem to circumvent your game? Do you repeatedly slap down the "offender" by beefing up your villains to unconscienable degress? Do you let them run roughshod? Do you wind up inserting a mysterious mental defense mid-combat to spare the adventure's plotline?

 

In short, how do you deal with powers that exist in your game that are proving to be a headache?

 

 

*passes out pitchforks and torches* Storm the castle the PC lives in with your village mob! Burn them! *foam! foam!*

 

 

No, well, just off the top of my head, I can think of a few things:

 

If you have reocurring threats/villains/organizations, etc:

 

1. ECV entangles: While it may work in the beginning, any villain or organization worth it's salt will start to develop countermeasures. Especially if they find that character particuarly effective in stopping their plots. By all rights, they'll likely come up with attacks or strategies to take down the other teams members (ie: strength weakening gas grenades for the team bricks, large AoE electrified nets for fast, agile targets, etc), so make sure if you do that to the ECV person, the other players get it too. Discussions about said super team when the villain or his organization get together will consist of various way to defeat the heroes, with special attention being paid to ECV hero since "ECV hero the biggest threat, we need to eliminate ECV first, remember that."

 

2. ECV EB that does body. If ECV blaster is chipping away at your boss or second in command villain and he gets his tail handed to him. You can assume a rematch either personally (in which case think ambush) or a reapperance as the villain's second in command to teach the heroes a lesson. And you can bet he's going to want to pound ECV blaster into the ground. Especially since Master villain told him if he doesn't stop the heroes, he's dog food. You can expect he's going to concentrate on taking out ECV blaster and dedicate as many of his agents/etc to that task as well. He won't totally ignore the others (he'll likely try to keep them busy with agents while he goes after the 'real' threat. Namely ECV blaster.)

 

3. Detect Truth hero. A little harder. While you can't use this trick all the time, it will come in handy for the plots you 'want' to keep secret and if another organizations or villains hear about Detect Truth Hero (Hey, villains and agents talk and compare notes too), Detect Truth will start finding high numbers of agents, and Second in commands to the master villains, will be seriously lacking in the details plans. This is realistic especially if the villains know what that character does. They'll tell their agents one thing when really they're doing another (it's the truth to the agents, so it checks out). And if the villain doesn't use Detect Truth Hero's power against them, by sending out a group of agents to rob some place, feed them misinformation that ultimately leads Detect Truth Hero (or thier counter part High Power Telepathy Lad) into a deadly situation or trap, said villain just isn't trying hard enough.

 

And it's not really unfair. Anyone that goes up against an opponent is going to try and beat them. If their opponent has the advantage, you can expect they're going to try to eliminate that advantage or try to use it for their own benefit.

[TheTemplar]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

Well' date=' the problem with it is that it makes death an inconsequential nuisance. Even in comics it shouldn't be devalued that much. On the other hand, Regeneration from death is another. I've had/seen characters with that.[/quote']

 

Yeah... that'd be my hang-up with it, too. I don't want the PC's to be too afraid of their own shadows to be heroes or anything, but I think the CHANCE of paying the ultimate price is an important element of the genre. If you can get resurrected at the drop of a hat, then that chance becomes pretty inconsequential.

 

A Self-Only Regen style Resurrection sounds interesting. I might be interested in that sort of concept (assuming, of course, that not ALL the players had it! )

[Zed-F]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

So overall' date=' MPE should be a +1 to +1 1/2. And I'd go for the higher of the two, as that would make the MPEs about 2D6 to 3D6, which is definitely annoying (but not insurmountable) to most non-mentalists, while being something that mentalists should be able to shrug off as easily as a brick shrugs off a 6D6 to 7D6 normal Entangle.[/quote']

 

It's already +1 1/2.

 

+1 BOECV

+1/4 Not affected by physical attacks

+1/4 Works against EGO, not STR

[Outsider]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

It's already +1 1/2.

 

+1 BOECV

+1/4 Not affected by physical attacks

+1/4 Works against EGO, not STR

 

 

I don't have my book with me right now, but I dont recall seeing in the MP subsection that it -required- BoECV, which means one could buy their Entangle to work against EGO & not affected by physical/energy attacks (for +1/2 total) then target it with DEX.

 

Maybe the revised edition reads differently.

[input.jack]

Re: Compensating for PC Abilities

 

"Within his first three appearances, Prof X used his mental powers to strip one villain of any knowledge of who he was and what his powers were, and a second of all knowledge of the X-men, Xavier's school and the fact he was a mutant. Xavier's pretty far down the "mentalist slippery slope", IMO."

 

As has been said, that was Silver Age. Now, personally, I tend to go with how characters were in the Bronze Age (but that should come as no real surprise, given my tag line).

 

Ive had to object about people calling Batman a gun-toter for using pistols and machine guns in his first couple of appearances, too. I guess I just sort of assume that until a character has been around for about 10 issues or so, the writers are -totally- sure what theyre doing with the character's personality and background, and if later they want me to "selectively forget" a few incedents, Im happy to oblige.

 

(The original batplane was a modified World War I biplane, too, which doesnt make a whole lot of sense in and of itself in the context of a modern batman. But in 1938 it was completely reasonable. You just gotta let some things slide ).

 

As for Ressurection, there have been a couple of characters in my campaign that have had that Power. (Not counting the occasional person who can Rez themself. They -always- have limitations and parameters on that ability, even if its unlikely that anyone will figure it out any time soon).

 

NPCs with Ressurection power include Ankhesenisis, God-Avatar of Isis, and Deathwalker, Living Avatar of Anubis. However, both are loathe to use that ability unless the circumstances under which someone died were...unusual, to say the least. Also, as both are effectively divinely powered, they both understand that bringing someone back to life can easly DENY them their rewards in the afterlife. Not a nice thing to do, and not to be done lightly.

 

Ive had characters Rez'ed by NPC's a couple of times. Not EVERY time; not hardly. Characters dont get killed often in our games, and when they do its meaningful.

 

But in one case, a character was effectively murdered and then brought back by the same evil Sorcoress, in order to reincarnate her former identity so that the undead Sorcoress could glean mystical information that the past-life incarnation had possessed (before killing her again and stealing her beautiful young body, as any evil undead Sorcoress would). Of course, the PCs saved her from the Sorcoress, and then had to deal with their friend being basically trapped in her own body by the consciousness of her former incarnation. They went through some pretty impressive hoops and managed to seperate out the pre-incarnation, binding her spirit to an amazingly crafted, animated wooden body, and restored the original girl to her own body.

 

Usually those capable of ressurrecting people understand that it skews the "cosmic balance" doing so, and also that if word gets out that you can do things like that, people will NEVER leave you alone. People like the NSA.