Power Level of a the Mafia

[ghost-angel]

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

 

I've always felt it comes down to just how the Hunted usually menaces the PC.

 

Action Man is hunted by Dave the Detective.

 

If DtD usually menaces AM by getting information about AM and trying to blackmail him. DtD is breaking the law himself, and thus isn't well protected by it. If AM ever caught DtD, he could slap him around pretty easily. Sounds like Less Powerful with NCI to me.

 

If DtD gathers information about AM, then uses his extensive contacts in the police and newspapers to make AM's life difficult, as well as sometimes targetting AM's day job, friends and family, all the while keeping far enough away and with legal cover so that AM can't directly confront DtD to put a stop to it, he's effectively As Powerful with NCI. Sure, AM could squish DtD if he could catch him, but the difficulty of that and the possible consequences make that very tough.

 

If DtD manages to win an election, becoming the new Mayor of Campaign City and gaining a measure of control over the police force, greater access to all the movers and shakers in Campaign City, and great legal protection, then carefully goes after AM without ever breaking the law himself (at least in any way likely to get him caught), he may be More Powerful than AM, with NCI. All of Action Man's power doesn't mean much if he can't actually apply it.

 

Other GMs may handle it differently, of course.

 

That is an excellent layout of approach, and generally how I think about it as well.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

 

I disagree - the Power of a Hunted is the overall Power in all arena's - especially if the Hunted has NCI.

 

Or put differently - no the physical threat is NOT the primary matter of debate. It is an ASPECT of Power. Not Power itself.

 

I think we are talking past each other. I agree with you.

 

Its just, for purposes of measuring whether a particular Hunted is LessPow, AsPow, or MoPow, look at the level of physical threat he can bring to bear on a character ( /including that of hired or manipulated minions/ ). This will suitably benchmark a character, as a character who is MoPow in purely social fields can *also* use that capacity to acquire and deploy MoPow physical threats.

 

Its not that social capacities of a Hunted don't matter; its that, as a general rule of thumb, a character with social potency is also a physical threat, so you don't need to benchmark them separately.

[薔薇語]

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

 

I think the point trying to be made on all sides is that:

 

Less Powerful = Annoyance

 

As powerful = True Threat

 

More Powerful = Deadly

 

NCI modifies this all by saying if they can be a threat outside of combat as well.

 

Frequency = Well everyone seems to understand this one.

 

Now from looking at the character I posted, I realized I left the Mob at AsPow. This was a clerical accident, as the character was written up prior to me posting this question (just not completed). That has been corrected and the threat is MoPowerful as the threat level warrants it. Writing up the background for Viktor convinced me of this.

 

Now when it comes to the abstract terms of what warrants what. I take my key from the list mentioned above, but modify it a little to taste. I do not think that the application of NCI onto an annoyance should somehow bring him up to threat. Just that his avenue of approach is harder to counter, ie. I can't just punch a bad news story till it dies. An annoyance should never graduate up to True Threat. The News reels should hurt the character's image or even make it harder for him to complete his job, but not stop it. Just as a Non-NCI Less Powerful couldn't stop him, only delay.

 

Likewise with an As Powerful or True Threat. They have an equal chance of stopping the character from doing his job, and indeed if it wasn't for good team work they might prevent him on a regular basis. Now if an As powerful hunted also has NCI, this means that he isn't limited to combat alone in accomplishing his goals. He can bribe or blackmail local officials to make the supers life hard. And again it doesn't matter if there is a NCI on an As Powerful threat, they likeliness of them stopping the super should never be on the regular basis. That is reserved for the More Powerful or Deadly Threat.

 

My only real complaint about the system as it is (in regards to this issue at least) is that there is no distinction between Combat and Non-Combat threats only. Mean we have a good way of assessing threats with the power ratio and NCI but no way to point out that some threats are purely combat oriented. I in someways would prefer that the disadvantage not have NCI as an adder but have Combat threat only, CTO, as a subtracter. Maybe I will mention this in the 6 Ed forum.

 

I see this Mob organization that Viktor belonging to as having the capabilities of causing severe harm to the hero in combat to the point that he can probably stop him on a regular basis. Also I think they have the NCI to be able to do the same outside combat.

 

I updated his file and have attached it. I corrected the mistake of un-hardened defenses and the clerical mistake of Viktor and a couple others.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Power Level of a the Mafia

 

One of things about NCI is it is Extensive Non-Combat Influence.

 

A Hunted without NCI can still have Non-Combat Influence, but there will be limited avenues. Perhaps a criminal with no available lawful (bribed or otherwise) resource to thwart the character with. Or only a small number of friends to call upon.

 

So a More Powerful Hunted without NCI can still have Non-Combat pull to thwart the character with. It is just more limited in scope.