Metal Master

[Grimble]

I am running a high powered Supers campaign. One of the characters is Metal Master. He was a rich kid from Wyoming who loved astronomy and had a brilliant mind. He went to college and got doctorates in Nuclear Physics and Astronomy. One night on his family ranch he observed a meteorite hit the Earth on his property. Upon investigation he found a chunk of, what looked like, nickle iron. He retrieved it from the crater and was surprised to find that it weighed less than what he expected. He took it back to his workshop and cut it open to see what it was made of...

 

The last thing he remembers is seeing a liquid metal pour out of the meteor and climb up his arm. When he awoke his skin was covered in the alien metal. He now has Detect Metals as a sense (ranged and analitacal), Armor 20 PD/20 ED, TK (65 STR) only with metals, and Major Transform (Any metal to any other metal) 7d6. Since his transformation he has got another doctorate in Metalurgy.

 

My question is...what would other GMs do with this powerhouse on the team? Most guns and powersuits are just toys to him. I have one major villian that has started shielding his stuff in a Power Defense force field, but this won't be feasible for most.

 

What would you throw at a plot devouring PC like this?

 

 

Grimble

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Metal Master

 

My question is...what would other GMs do with this powerhouse on the team? Most guns and powersuits are just toys to him. I have one major villian that has started shielding his stuff in a Power Defense force field, but this won't be feasible for most.

 

What would you throw at a plot devouring PC like this?

 

Plastic weaponry using mineral, but not metal, ammunition. Ceramic/plastic armor. Anyone expecting him will adapt by removal of metals from their person. Think of how your players would argue that Magneto's magnetism is of limited effect on them.

 

That's a 137 AP power (7d6 x 15 points x 1.25 for his "any metal" result). It should be powerful. Is he regularly facing opponents with 100+ AP attacks?

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

That's a 137 AP power (7d6 x 15 points x 1.25 for his "any metal" result). It should be powerful. Is he regularly facing opponents with 100+ AP attacks?

 

No. Not usually. But they do face powerful villians. He bought it this way at the beginning of the game. He just wanted to be able to convert any type of metal and at large amounts. I didn't realize what a headache it would be until I ran a couple of sessions...

 

 

Grimble

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Metal Master

 

Transform is cumulative - he can still transform large amounts with lower dice. It will just take him longer. I suspect part of the answer is to bring his AP back in line with the campaign norms.

 

But I also suspect VIPER and other villainous agencies will start phasing metal out of their equipment, especially if they expect to encounter this guy.

[Badger]

Re: Metal Master

 

Well, you can always just throw villains at him that use things like magic (provided no talismans are a focus for their magic). Ki-using MAs. Uber-bricks. I guess getting effective henchmen are a problem though. Need to think more on that.

[casualplayer]

Re: Metal Master

 

Throw a rust monster at him!

 

Seriously though, I would attack his senses through Flashes and NNDs. Also, unless he has N-Ray on his Metal Sense, he only detects the uppermost layer of metal. Put something nasty inside an innocuous shell. Make a nemesis, Polymer Pete, with an Entangle Gun that blocks senses along with Entangling. I would also say that, unless he has Indirect, that his Transform wouldn't work through Force Fields. You may just have to say that his Metal Sense doesn't work through FFs, because strictly speaking FF does not mandate the presense of Indirect to get through.

 

Mostly I would link his Transform heavily to the Metal Sense, and then use the many ways to futz with senses. Failing at that, I would beat him severely with Grond.

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

Transform is cumulative - he can still transform large amounts with lower dice. It will just take him longer. I suspect part of the answer is to bring his AP back in line with the campaign norms.

 

Ummm...who said his power was outside the campaign norms. I do not plan on making the player buy the power down. I'm looking for cool plot hooks, Ways to have complicated electronis without metal. Stuff like that.

 

 

Grimble

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

Well' date=' you can always just throw villains at him that use things like magic (provided no talismans are a focus for their magic). Ki-using MAs. Uber-bricks. I guess getting effective henchmen are a problem though. Need to think more on that.[/quote']

 

A good idea. I do have a team of magic crystal wielding villians Im almost ready to spring on the group.

 

Grimble

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Metal Master

 

Ummm...who said his power was outside the campaign norms.

 

You did. I asked you how common powers of similar AP were encountered in the campaign, and you indicated it was pretty rare. Thus, his power is outside the campaign norms.

 

Simplistic solution? "Metal Stabilizer" - 30 Power Defense, Usable as an attack (+1), Ranged (+1/2), AoE 1 hex (+1/2), Megascale (1" = 10km, +1/2) Persistent (+1/2 - eliminates LoS requirement). 120 AP. Only protects metals (-2), 1 Continuing Charge of 1 day (-0), OAF (-1), Immobile (-1) real cost 24 points.

 

The Metal Stabilizer was developed by VIPER in an effort to deal with a powerful superhuman whose abilities included transformation of any metal to any other metal. Frustrated with having their agents' high tech gear transformed into lead, and becoming useless, VIPER research scientists explored numerous alternatives to make metals resistant to this transformative effect. The Metal Stabilizer is their most successful result to date. The MS is a huge machine, requiring a small warehouse to house it. Once installed, the MS can radiate a unique energy wavelength which interacts with all metals in a 10 km radius, rendering their molecular structure considerably more rigid, providing great resistance to any transformative effects directed against them. This rigidity lasts fr a period of about one day. The MS' components are placed under great stress by the generation of the Stabilization Wave, and require a period of 24 hours between uses to be recalibrated by servomotors within the machine itself. VIPER siceintists are currently working on a means of reducing the size of the equipment, and VIPER hpes to have a more portable version of the MS available for agent teams in the future.

 

I do not plan on making the player buy the power down. I'm looking for cool plot hooks' date=' Ways to have complicated electronis without metal. Stuff like that.[/quote']

 

As noted above, magic, plastics, ceramics, silicon, force screens shielding metallic components, the Metal Stabilizer or whatever other McGuffin you wish to come up with.

 

To me, however, that's the same as asking the character to tone down the power, except less honest. Rather than saying "That Transform Metals is more effective than I expected, and is causing me problems with scenario design. Can we work on a way to keep that flavour while not neutering many of the villains?", you're looking for ways to take away the effectiveness of that 130+ AP power without refunding any of the points spent on it. Don't be surprised if your player gets frustrated after the 10th or so high tech villain he can't affect with that power he specifically designed to be able to take out high tech villains.

 

Part of the problem, IMO, is that this character has a binary switch. Put him up against anyone with some reliance on metal foci, and he's omnipotent. Change those components to ceramics and plastics, and he loses a lot of power - maybe falling below the other PC's power curves? Characters like that tend to be tough to deal with.

[Manic Typist]

Re: Metal Master

 

How about a living energy being? Something made of pure eletricity, or whatever. That can be plenty high tech and interact with electronics, but as long as it can manifest itself physically (as a moving energy form), it should be fine. Yeah, the player can mess with any toys it might use or devices it takes over, but when it steps out to go mano a electro......

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

I really like the Metal Stabilizer idea, but I think I'd make it a part of the weapon or armor or whatever it's protecting te metel of. I don't think I need to go Megascale with it.

 

He really isn't that binary. He does have TK Metals only and sense metals. Even if there isn't any metal in the area (Unlikely in any urban environment) the PCs carry enough of the stuff around to give him weapons in a fight.

 

Grimble

 

PS I'm not really looking to cancel him ot totally. Heck, it's easy to throw Grond at him. And he can still only attack one gun at a time. Just throw a dozen Viper agents with Blaster rifles at him. What I'm after are COOL ways to thwart him now and again. Every hero needs to get smacked down every now and then, but I want to mess with Metal Master in NEAT ways. He's got a cool set of powers, I want cool ways to break them.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Metal Master

 

Idea 1: A master criminal sets up Metal Master by arming one of his agents with weapons and armor that are layered metal - and in between the layers is compressed nerve gas or some other toxin. So he turns the agent's gun's metal parts to mercury, and this gas comes out and endangers innocents. Looks to outside observers like Metal Master created the gas somehow, and the master criminal is all ready with a media campaign to make MM's life absolute misery over it.

 

Idea 2: Ceramic armor / weapons with shiny metallic paint on them. MM wastes time hitting them and is only able to strip off the paint. Just a time-waster, but a good idea for someone like Foxbat.

 

Idea 3: Master criminal finds a way to steal a gold shipment from under MM's nose (teleportation, maybe), but instead of just taking the gold, he replaces it with an equal amount of lead. (Maybe that's how the teleporter works; it has to switch equal masses between point A and point B.) This makes MM think someone else can do what he does, and given his powers, there's that whole public perception that somehow *he's* responsible for the "transformation". And sure, MM just transforms the lead "back" into gold -- and the master criminal has a ton of gold that nobody knows he's taken.

 

Just a few ideas off the top of my head.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Metal Master

 

I really like the Metal Stabilizer idea' date=' but I think I'd make it a part of the weapon or armor or whatever it's protecting te metel of. I don't think I need to go Megascale with it.[/quote']

 

A smaller scale is certainly do-able.

 

He really isn't that binary. He does have TK Metals only and sense metals. Even if there isn't any metal in the area (Unlikely in any urban environment) the PCs carry enough of the stuff around to give him weapons in a fight.

 

If there's always enough around that he can be fully effective, how much of a limitation are you giving him for "metals only"? There should be some limit - he can't just Grab an opponent, after all. But if he's rarely, if ever, seriously challenged by the limitation, is it worth more than -1/4 or -1/2?

[Doc Samson]

Re: Metal Master

 

I think these guys hit the nail on the head. Slowing the power down is the way to go. If you don't want to reduce the dice, then I think Power Defense is the best option.

 

There was another thread around here with a Metal Controlling guy. He was looking for ideas for "super" metals to introduce into his campaign. Perhaps you can introduce a new metal (another meteorite or even artificially manufactured) into the campaign that has natural Power Pefense, for those reallly tough re-occuring villains or organizations?

 

[edit]Ha! I just looked at the other thread and it's yours too! Well, my suggestion for a naturally Power Defensive metal still stands.

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

If there's always enough around that he can be fully effective, how much of a limitation are you giving him for "metals only"? There should be some limit - he can't just Grab an opponent, after all. But if he's rarely, if ever, seriously challenged by the limitation, is it worth more than -1/4 or -1/2?

 

I really don't want to penalize him, just because the team is smart enough to all go into combat with change in their pockets. I applaud smart moves from the players. He is challenged as much as anyone else with "metal only" lim on the campaign, so it's all good.

 

Again, I'd rather the focus here be plots and tricks I can use against Metal Master. (And there have been some cool ones, so far). I don't need critiques on his write-up. I am not going to have the player change it. I like MM, he can just be frustrating when I have a comic book cliche plot idea that he would just wave a hand at and there goes what should have been 2 hours of table time.

 

 

Grimble

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Metal Master

 

I really don't want to penalize him' date=' just because the team is smart enough to all go into combat with change in their pockets. [/quote']

 

Supers have pockets? I have a player who specifically designed his costume to have pockets because most characters in the comics don't seem to have them. he wanted to be able to access change to make a phone call.

 

Again' date=' I'd rather the focus here be plots and tricks I can use against Metal Master. (And there have been some cool ones, so far). I don't need critiques on his write-up. I am not going to have the player change it. I like MM, he can just be frustrating when I have a comic book cliche plot idea that he would just wave a hand at and there goes what should have been 2 hours of table time.[/quote']

 

The latter is the same as many other powers - Telepathy wreaks havoc on mysteries, for example.

 

To swipe from the comics, what about an Antarctic Vibranium knockoff? It destabilizes and destroys metals, so that could get rid of surrounding metals, leaving MM with nothing to TK or transform. This would, of course, require opposition who aren't reliant on metals themselves, but that doesn't seem so hard to arrange.

 

BTW, would you also consider it "penalizing them for playing smart" to deny one character a -2 limitation for "only in intense magnetic fields" when another has Change Environment to create an intense magnetic field (or uses his Gadget pool to build one)?

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

BTW, would you also consider it "penalizing them for playing smart" to deny one character a -2 limitation for "only in intense magnetic fields" when another has Change Environment to create an intense magnetic field (or uses his Gadget pool to build one)?

 

Sounds like the penalty is innate without any change from me. If it'll take 2 characters actions to pull off the uber power, mkore power to 'em.

 

Grimble

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Metal Master

 

When in doubt, mind control the annoying PC and let the other PCs figure out how to stop them.

[BoloOfEarth]

Re: Metal Master

 

More ideas:

 

Idea 4) Two Can Play That Game: A master of magnetism uses all that spare metal that the other players are carrying around to make *their* lives miserable. Or a radiation character attacks them, irradiating all that metal (another Transform, but making that metal highly dangerous). Or Microwave Man blasts them, making those coins in their pockets blisteringly hot or melts them.

 

Idea 5) Quirky Powers: Metal Master's powers begin having occasional (not game-shattering, just vaguely disturbing) fluctuations. For instance, he changes lead to gold to get some quick cash, and gets titanium instead. Takes him another "try" to get it right. Wierd, erratic stuff like that spread over several game sessions. Is it a supervillain plot, or is the "liquid metal" from the meteorite breaking down or mutating within him? How can he fix or stabilize himself?

 

Idea 6) Sneakers, Part 2: A "government agent" gets Metal Master's help to turn a bunch of aluminum or iron into some kind of super metal, or mold a buch of unobtainium into high-tech battlesuits or some such. Then it's revealed that the agent was really from VIPER or some other criminal agency, and the actual government is pissed at MM for helping them out

[Kenn]

Re: Metal Master

 

Can he manipulate any metal as defined scientifically, or just the materials that the common person thinks of as metals?

 

This is important because otherwise he can manipulate things like the calcium in peoples bones, the Sodium in the salt in the ocean, and all sorts of things.

 

And why go to the problem of making lead into gold for quick cash. Turn pocket change into Ununpentium for someplace like Fermilab.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Metal Master

 

Since when did manipulation of any specific type of substance such as earth, ice, metal, sand or water include the ability to transform it from one type of that substance to another. Can Hydro-Man actually change normal water into heavy water? Could Terra change sandstone into marble?

[Grimble]

Re: Metal Master

 

Since when did manipulation of any specific type of substance such as earth' date=' ice, metal, sand or water include the ability to transform it from one type of that substance to another. Can Hydro-Man actually change normal water into heavy water? Could Terra change sandstone into marble?[/quote']

 

Ummm...since never. What do these other characters have to do with how my player built his character. He bought Transform (Metal to Metal), TK (Metal only) and analytical metal sense ranged. I am asking for suggestons on how to mess with Metal Master.

 

Grimble

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Metal Master

 

Ummm...since never. What do these other characters have to do with how my player built his character. He bought Transform (Metal to Metal), TK (Metal only) and analytical metal sense ranged. I am asking for suggestons on how to mess with Metal Master.

 

Grimble

 

Sorry, I didn't see the Transformation part of the original post.

 

I guess the better comparison would be with characters like Element Lad, Firestorm and Molecule Man. Limiting the effect to just metal isn't really changing the basic problem that those characters posed for their comic's writers. Also, since this is for supers I guess a limited time effect like those of Full Metal Alchemist are out of the question (he once turned iron ore into gold and spent it only for it to turn back into iron ore about an hour later). A character with that much power to change the world (economy, political landscape, etc..) should probably be required to take some sort of psychological lim to reflect his knowledge of this. It's hard to force that on a player after the fact though. Another possibility is government/business sanctions similar to the diamond industry's reaction to cheap manufactured diamonds that are almost impossible to tell from mined ones.

[Shaddakim]

Re: Metal Master

 

Idea 3: Master criminal finds a way to steal a gold shipment from under MM's nose (teleportation' date=' maybe), but instead of just taking the gold, he replaces it with an equal amount of lead. (Maybe that's how the teleporter works; it has to switch equal masses between point A and point B.) This makes MM think someone else can do what he does, and given his powers, there's that whole public perception that somehow *he's* responsible for the "transformation". And sure, MM just transforms the lead "back" into gold -- and the master criminal has a ton of gold that nobody knows he's taken.[/quote']

 

Oooooh, I like that one. Later down the line, one of the "duplicate" bars could show up and lead to some scrambling by the various economic agencies once they realize that there is no way to tell the two bars apart. MM gets questioned about it by the authorities ("Did you steal the gold and plant the lead?" "How do you support yourself financially?" "Have you been paying taxes on all that gold you created?") MM picks up a Watched by the Treasury Service (who want to make certain that MM does not destabailize the world economy) and possibly the IRS (who now suspect he is hiding undeclared income and he now has to prove he isn't).

 

What if the Federal Government requires him to wear a tracker so they can know where he is all the time (as part of "National Security") and villains get the frequency? Now the villains always seem to leave just before he gets there to stop them and the PCs have to figure out a way to effectively fight crime without becoming Hunted by the governement as fugitives.

 

Eventually, MM could negotiate a deal with the Feds where he will include some sort of trace element into his transformations so his created metals are always identifiable in exchange for them getting off his back. This could be enforced with some post-hypnotic suggestion work or the use of a simple mind-control device. Then, once all of that is settled, the PCs have to hunt down the villain with the teleporter who originally caused all of this mess for a good, old-fashoned superhero beatdown.

 

Tie all of this in with election year politics (either State or National) for some mud slinging and grand-standing and you have the makings of some solid ethics drama.