How would you make this Character?

[Jamal]

Have a character in mind, but am not really sure how to make him, so I thought I would post the idea on the board and see what you guys and gals can come up with.

 

A male character that can control and manipulate probability. Not laser blast or anything, just a quick flash when he uses his powers. The concept is, when he uses his powers to control/manipulate probability, everything slows down, just for him. During this time his eyes are glowing. He then mentaly states the probability he wants to affect, (i.e. increase the probability that the car will not hit the kid), after the desired affect is stated, everything resumes back to normal for him. To someone watching him, they simply see his eyes flash. The affects work, but he can not control what happens. In other words, the desired affect is reach, but sometimes other things happen instead, (i.e. instead of the car hitting the kid, it has a blow out and the car vears off, missing the kid, but slamming into a bus, killing someone inside). Hope that makes sense. Thanks guys and gals. Looking forward to see what you come up with. Thanks.

[Diamond Spear]

How about a Variable Power Pool with No Concious Control? The only problem I see is that the way you have describe the character his power would always work. Couldn't that be a bit unbalanceing?

[Redmenace]

Read up on the various forms of Luck, or the section on luck-probability manipulation in the USPD.

 

Otherwise I'd say a vpp as stated above or a multipower with invisible TK and Missile deflection plus other powers like eb, indirect to be used as volatile chemicals, like say a gas tank, spontaneously exploding. This unfortunately is better done by a vpp. it covers all powers after all but deciding what you want during a game can really slow things down.

[drrushing]

Interesting idea. I see most of his "power" as a special effect. You've described that most of the power is only visible to him, it has no effect at all on the outside environment. As for the "probability" field, you could buy numerous levels of "Luck" and "Unluck" as powers, with the range advantage, no conscious control disadvantage and use the rule modification that allows for taking the average of the dice instead of a random roll. This allows you to have your desired effect, i.e. the power always works to some level, it has range, and your character has no control over the final effect.

[JohnTaber]

How about a special effect of TK? Seems like that would cover most of the things he would want to do...

[Diamond Spear]

Or maybe, 20d6 Luck, Usable on Others, Concentrate 1/2 DCV, Visible Power Effect (glowing eyes), Only to change outcome of perceptable event, Side effect 10d6 unluck, Usable on others, Random effect, No Concious Control

[Supreme]

Re: How would you make this Character?

 

Originally posted by Jamal

Have a character in mind, but am not really sure how to make him, so I thought I would post the idea on the board and see what you guys and gals can come up with.

 

A male character that can control and manipulate probability. Not laser blast or anything, just a quick flash when he uses his powers. The concept is, when he uses his powers to control/manipulate probability, everything slows down, just for him.

You could do some kind of SPD Aid here, but those are expensive and complicated. You could also do a linked Lightning Reflexes, which is cheaper and allows you to go first (provided that no one else has a higher total DEX).

During this time his eyes are glowing.

Special effect. No need to spend any points, or buy any powers here. All powers are normally supposed to have some sort of perceivable effect.

He then mentaly states the probability he wants to affect, (i.e. increase the probability that the car will not hit the kid), after the desired affect is stated, everything resumes back to normal for him.

Mentally states, as opposed to vocally states means nothing in terms of powers or power modifiers. The fact that he can more or less state any effect says to me that it's a VPP which most often makes things like TK or change environment.

To someone watching him, they simply see his eyes flash. The affects work, but he can not control what happens. In other words, the desired affect is reach, but sometimes other things happen instead, (i.e. instead of the car hitting the kid, it has a blow out and the car vears off, missing the kid, but slamming into a bus, killing someone inside). Hope that makes sense. Thanks guys and gals. Looking forward to see what you come up with. Thanks.

The fact that things can go awry could mean something as simple as a blown attack roll or a Side Effects limitation.

[Hugh Neilson]

OK, in answer to the question posed, i'd have to say "As an NPC".

 

I like both the VPP approach and the Luck/Unluck approach, but I think a character like this is likely to be frustrating for both player and GM. It's one of those constructs that works better in fiction than in play.

 

Why? Because fiction has one "writer" and games have several. This character forces the GM to do a lot of the work running your character's powers, which also removes a lot of control from you. How much can the character vary? Look at how powerful/weak the Scarlet Witch has been over the years as writers come and go.

 

You're likely to be frustrated because your abilities don't work the way you want, or as often as you want, or as effectively as you want. You sacrifice a lot of control of your character. Meanwhile, the GM is frustrated that, each phase, you're asking him to interpret how your powers work to do this effect you've just decided you want. One more thing for the GM to look after. Effectively, it's a communal character.

 

If you and your GM are both happy with this "shared character" structure, go for it. But I'd consider it carefully, and talk it over with the GM, before putting a lot of work into it.

[sbarron]

The part about him not having any control over the outcome seems like it would be a VPP with a form of Uncontrollable. He can decide he wants to make something happen, but not how or what exactly. That would all be up to the GM.

 

I don't know how fun this would be though. There wouldn't be any dice rolling for the PC (other than dodging and stuff), and the GM would have to do all the work of figuring out what the result from the stated probility shift is. The GM may be into that or not.

 

The more I think about it, Luck dice are the way to go with this. The GM decides what the results from being lucky are, which is how this power is described. Maybe use "usable as attack" so that he can use his luck to make the little boy in his example lucky?

 

This ones complicated. Since I'm just thinking with my fingers, I'll bow out...

[Supreme]

Originally posted by Hugh Neilson

OK, in answer to the question posed, i'd have to say "As an NPC".

...

An excellent point. One of the secrets to RPGs is letting go of interesting ideas in favor of characters that are actually fun to play. I once played an energy projector who was designed according to some strategic paradigm that I wanted to try. The paradigm worked great. The character was very powerful for 250 points, and operated in combat just as I'd planned -- and I was bored the whole time. Now I play only bricks. Why? Because I want to put the villain down with a sock to the jaw, not carefully calculated maneuvers. That's just me. Others prefer different things. The point is not playing to any strengths, but playing to your own likes and dislikes.

[Jamal]

I forgot to add that my idea for this guy is that his power adds or subtracts from a probability. Take for example the car incident in my first post. There is a 75% chance that the car will hit the kid, his powers could make the percent 65% or 50% or 45%, etc. So, there is a chance that the incident will still happen. However, if the child is not hit, there is a chance, that something else will happen instend, i.e. blowout and car hits a building or a person or what ever. I should have explain it more in detail in my first post, but I was press for time. Thanks for the replies I have already gotten.

[Supreme]

Originally posted by Jamal

I forgot to add that my idea for this guy is that his power adds or subtracts from a probability. Take for example the car incident in my first post. There is a 75% chance that the car will hit the kid, his powers could make the percent 65% or 50% or 45%, etc. So, there is a chance that the incident will still happen. However, if the child is not hit, there is a chance, that something else will happen instend, i.e. blowout and car hits a building or a person or what ever. I should have explain it more in detail in my first post, but I was press for time. Thanks for the replies I have already gotten.

Can't really see the point to this feature. I mean, you either want something to happen or not. You can add levels to increase your changes of it working (which could never be in even 10% increments because of HERO's 3D6 system - sorry) but why would you ever only add just a few percent? I suppose if your levels could be applied to other things like DCV, or something.

[Jamal]

Okay I have another character in mind, that I wanted to run by the forum and get your advice on. Not sure how many know who I am talking about, but a hero that is like Elemental Lad from the Legion. Basically, he has the power to move elements up and down the periodic table, i.e. turn oxygen into iron, iron into water, and so fourth. Also be able to make force fields and shields out of elements and shape them also. He would also be able to sense what elements are present in anything. Now how would you guys go about making a character like this? Again, thanks for you guys' and gals' help. Just checking out other ideas. Hope I am not bugging you guys and gals too much:(

[Lemur866]

That's probably a variable power pool, the "element control" aspect is just a special effect. Your character can do anything, within limits. Want to fly? Turn the air to helium. Want a "force field"? Turn oxygen to iron. Want an energy blast? Turn nitrogen to hydrogen, it combusts with oxygen in the air, boom.

 

Oh, and he could buy a detect for his element sense, just buy the attributes you want. But the price for an uber-sense can add up. If he has to concentrate for a bit you could get it much cheaper than if he has some sort of total element awareness.

 

The way to design characters is to keep in mind that the special effect is just the starting point. You want a character that can do all sorts of different things using his special effect. If your character has just 5 or 6 tricks that he does all the time, you could design a multipower. A simpler 4 color campaign without much character development can get away with this. Element Man might ALWAYS lead off with transforming the thug's gun to water, then an iron shield for protection, then lead weight EB to the head, then a titanium entangle to take the thugs back to HQ. But if you want to do more subtle things, the character you're describing is really limited by imagination only...so a VPP would be best.

 

The trouble with VPPs is that the GM has to keep a lid on them, so the character can't solve every problem just by waving a magic wand. But an element control VPP has some logical limitiations that make it easier on the GM. You can help your GM by having several powers written up in advance and cleared...figure out your titanium entangle, hydrogen EB explosion, lead weight EB, iron FF, telekinesis, helium flight/levitation, chlorine RKA, transforms, etc. Then you don't have to haggle over what your character can do unless you're pulling out a special stunt at the climax.