Dr Divago Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Hi all i'm running a low level superhero campaign, where metahuman (term for people with superpowers) where very rare and secret, and almost entire population does'nt know anything about it. Player where normal guy and then discovered their special powers and are thrown in a world of conspiracy, hidden metahuman underground culture and secret societies who act as bigger player (something between "heroes" and "xmen"... even if they actually are more similar to "misfits"... ) one of those "secret society" are Cabinet RS33 (sort of Italian MIB or Torchwood... here full article in italian) Now, in a totally unexpected evolution of an adventure, they could be recruited and become special agent of this Cabinet RS33 now, this of course will be a Membership Fringe Benefit, paired of with a Social Limitation: Must Follow Orders problem is: two of those pc are respectively a policeman and a firewoman; they both already have membership fringe benefit and social limitation. so i need to replace that... but they will end with no disadvantage (they just swap the one they "must follow orders") and lesser advantage (police membership will become RS33 membership...) so should i: - don't bother; 'cause this are "campaign gained" advantage/disadvantage so i need no bother about balancing between them - give them another advantage (maybe they will gain ranking inside RS33) to compensate. then some "responsibility" disadvantage - let them keep their former job: so they will get 2 membership (they could play policeman normally and RS33 special agent when need arise) also, they gain social limitation: secret identity of some sort (what if a police mate discover about his partner "second job"?) ty, as always, for help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sketchpad Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents I think giving them a new membership as part of experience works well ... I've done so in the past and used XP Shaving to accomplish what I needed to do there. However, with the two that have respectable jobs already, I think you need to ask yourself a few questions: • Do the heroes have their jobs as part of their secret identity? • Does RS33 hire the heroes on as part of their secret society? And, as such, would they still need to work in their day jobs as part of their cover or do they get "transferred" like Gwen did in Torchwood? Also, have you asked the players what they would like to do? Perhaps the direction of their character would be to take a different path than you're intending ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents I assume you mean Player Characters become Special Agents othwise, I'd have to ask if you have a training ground hidden in your basement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragitsu Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents I assume you mean Player Characters become Special Agents othwise, I'd have to ask if you have a training ground hidden in your basement I was going to say... But i'm glad you did first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents problem is: two of those pc are respectively a policeman and a firewoman; they both already have membership fringe benefit and social limitation. so i need to replace that... but they will end with no disadvantage (they just swap the one they "must follow orders") and lesser advantage (police membership will become RS33 membership...) Why can't they have both? When both still apply, that is totally legal. Some real persons I know are Members in a halve dozen orgnisations, each could be reflected with Membership Benefit and/or Subject to orders in Hero. Just think about a teacher volunteerign in the fire Brigade. And once you get into to many organisations at once, you may notice that you acumulated to many "Subject to Orders" Complications;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escafarc Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents If you can track down a copy of Super-Agents(from 3E? Champions) it has a lot of good ideas for this type of game. I wish I still had my copy:( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmjalund Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents [ATTACH=CONFIG]38477[/ATTACH] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents • Do the heroes have their jobs as part of their secret identity? • Does RS33 hire the heroes on as part of their secret society? And, as such, would they still need to work in their day jobs as part of their cover or do they get "transferred" like Gwen did in Torchwood? mmmhhh i'm thinking about the latter... btw they could also keept their old jobs like "cover identities" Also' date=' have you asked the players what they would like to do? Perhaps the direction of their character would be to take a different path than you're intending ...[/quote']well, yes of course i'm just being prepared so whatever they decide i could give them a correct answer I assume you mean Player Characters become Special Agents othwise, I'd have to ask if you have a training ground hidden in your basement no, the hiddeng training ground is on the roof u.u Why can't they have both? When both still apply, that is totally legal. Some real persons I know are Members in a halve dozen orgnisations, each could be reflected with Membership Benefit and/or Subject to orders in Hero. Just think about a teacher volunteerign in the fire Brigade. ok... i'm wondering if being part of this secret agency is something full time (so they got really no much time for old job) or they could did it "part time" so they will keep their original job and go special agent only when really need arise... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents i'm wondering if being part of this secret agency is something full time (so they got really no much time for old job) or they could did it "part time" so they will keep their original job and go special agent only when really need arise... One thing to consider about "Subject to Order": It doesn not mean you always get commanded around, it may also mean that you have sometimes "appiontments" and ignoring them to much, can throw you out of the your group: you lose the Benefit and your Complication may become destitute (in the chase of your job) or a watched (when you were some type of agent). "Guys, we need to wrap this up fast. I have to be in Atlanta in about two hours and would like to shower first." There even was this one idea in the forum of a tenured professor, who used Mind Controll to avoid those problems (thus, no complication but the benefit). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents Ok; now i got serious problem about how to balance disadvantages and perks my idea was: 5 Fringe Benefit: Membership of RS33 3 Fringe Benefit: Security Clearence (level 0 aka "Secret" and some "Most Secret") 3 Computer Link: Access to Law Enforcement Databases those are based on campaign; maybe i could lower a little the computer link (or the second fringe benefit) just to go 10 chars points then disadvantages: 10 Hunted: RS33 (MoPow, NCI, Watched) 15 Social Limitation: Subject to Order the "hunted" replace another hunted disads they all got; basically RS33 protects them against some other nasty secret societies then the problems arise: 1) i got 15 point of disad and 10-11 of perks. so i need to give them other 4 point of perks. what else? 2) they all lose some perks from previous jobs. ie the one who had [Fringe Benefit: Accesso to University Labs] got no real point in using them in lieu of specialised super secret labs. sometime i can convert them in contact, favor or access (backdoor inside university computers, just in case) 3) someone need to convert their previous [social Limitation: Subject to Order]. And this is a real pain in the arse... how they could lose it? some enemies or rivals? how did i justify them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents 3) someone need to convert their previous [social Limitation: Subject to Order]. And this is a real pain in the arse... how they could lose it? some enemies or rivals? how did i justify them? Uhhhmmm...they quit? They do have full time job at RS33 now. Perhaps the RS3 requires them to quit anything that could propose a confilict of interest or collide with their work form them. Or perhaps RS33 "pulled some strings" to make certain they still get the money, but have the allowance to ignore some meetings (whenever it would collide with their RS33 work). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents Uhhhmmm...they quit? They do have full time job at RS33 now. Perhaps the RS3 requires them to quit anything that could propose a confilict of interest or collide with their work form them.yes yes! the thing is they quit and start working at RS33 full time problem is, while they quit they technically lose Subkject to Order disads, and then i need something else to replace it one idea could be a bad reputation or rivalry: some other "normal guy" just doesn't understand why those noobs will get frontline while they are normal agents since several years or, the policeman could get a bad reputation ('cause he's a cop and most of the npc in the RS33 are from military background so they just mock him) but this are only little things, nothing serious and nothing very adequate... maybe best thing is talking about them to the player; ok this will spoiler something but this is their chars, not mine u.u Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents yes yes! the thing is they quit and start working at RS33 full time problem is, while they quit they technically lose Subkject to Order disads, and then i need something else to replace it You replace: Subject to orders from Work with Subject to orders from PS33. Complciation gained trhough play can just replace those "that no longer apply to the character". As long as the overall complication points don't drop without XP being invested, there is no Problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents You replace: Subject to orders from Work with Subject to orders from PS33. ok save from the difference in points (subject to orders from police is 20 points, subject from orders from RS33 is 15 points... maybe also 10...) but the problem are: the other guys, the ones who does'nt have "subject to orders", will get too "subject to orders from RS33"... so they will ends up having more disadvantages than the other ones at the moment i'm planning on removing some disads from this one too... but someone have only not-removable disads (like psychological limitation, physical limitation and enraged, to name few) or disads that will be not realistically removed... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 6, 2011 Report Share Posted May 6, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents It's subject to orders + watched. Togehter they might just make it up. Perhaps you can give them a DNCP, the usual Klumsy Partner/Young Agent if there is still something missing. As long as the otheres want to switch and they give you an adventure to overcome/weaken their problem in reasonable time, then let them change them a little bit later. Or when their overall complciations go up by 10, then say: When you ever want to lose some of those complciations, the points you got more that time are free of charge then. Alterntively: they have a lot of serious problems, do you really want them to be your top agents? Perhaps give them a lesser StO and no Watched, as they aren't believed to be dependable enough to be borthered with such high risk missions. Maybe the others(the reliable agents) just always drag them into it.... Overall it would have been better if the players knew there might bee some switch comming, so they could choose easily swapable complciations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents Overall it would have been better if the players knew there might bee some switch comming' date=' so they could choose easily swapable complciations.[/quote']yeah i talked to him, and we where arguing about it but noone found a solution to the problem x.x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 7, 2011 Report Share Posted May 7, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents yeah i talked to him' date=' and we where arguing about it but noone found a solution to the problem x.x[/quote'] Just bank the difference, and when he ever want's to throw of sone of the other complications or limitations, he get's those points for no expense. Or he just get's more overall complications. The situation warants him to get them (unless he want's to be all-out hunted by them instead) and if he has nothing to give up, then he get's more. Don't play the game if you can't stand getting complications through adventures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents Don't play the game if you can't stand getting complications through adventures.mmmhh ok i could just keep in consideration whenever they got a "special experience rewards" (1) btw, what would you use to give some of them "responsibilities"? i mean, of course with fringe benefit there are powers and responsabilities; but what if i whant one of them be entitled as "squad leader" (aka the manager) of the group? the one who need to go to their superior and ask for equipment, made reports, and of course be responsible for errors they make? (1) they started with only 200+100 points (less than normal superhero who start with 250+100). Sometime i give them some "special reward" in form of a stats increase or power bonus just to keep the feeling they are not really able to control their powers but are gaining controls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted May 8, 2011 Report Share Posted May 8, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents The special rewards are a good way to compensate them. Special Responsibilites: I think this is already part of Subject To Orders and Watched. Perhaps the Squad leader has a +5 Points "Squad Leader" adder to them, so that everyones actions reflect on him, he has to request gear... Or perhaps a weak "Succeptibility" (Errors of the Other Team Members), 5 Points When you add more, this could become a seperate Template in and of itself. The same way Scotty deals with Engine problems and Checkov with navigating, Kirk has to deal with Bureaucracy (he always signs some pad...) Subject to Orders can just mean you are tied up in Red Tape when there are more important things to do (like going to the School Play of your Kid). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Divago Posted May 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 10, 2011 Re: Player becoming Special Agents TY all for help! i solved it by giving them the disadvantage/complications THEN they gain access to some special equipment/training, and someone could lose his disad too OR could buy special abilities (like some access, computer link, or like) or special training tecnicque (CSL or martial maneuver) at no cost/reduced cost up to the amount of disads gained Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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