Converting Character Powers to Base Equipment

[bigdamnhero]

Just curious to hear some thoughts on how you handle equipment in the PC's base and how it relates to the character's powers. (I'm coming at it from a Champions angle, where PCs don't pay points for equipment, but the question could carry over to other genres I think.)

 

Example: Mystic Maid has a Suppress Magic spell, which is moderately effective in combat. But the team has captured Dark Magic Dude, and wants to keep him imprisoned at their base until the next full moon when Shit Is Scheduled To Get Real. Mystic Maid wants to expand her Suppress Spell to create essentially an anti-magic cell to imprison DMD. (Or maybe it's a collar or something to save on the AOE.) Seems pretty genre, but to make it work would require far more AP than she can normally get with her Spells VPP, even with loading up the Limitations to bring the Real Cost down.

 

The base mechanical way is straightforward enough: put X points into the base, which buys you Y points worth of Suppress. My question is how do you determine if Mystic Maid is capable of building a Suppress Spell that is strong enough to hold DMD? It makes sense (to me anyway) that a character who spends a week crafting an immobile spell (or gadget or whatever) fed off the base's ley line (power supply) could come up with something more powerful than what she can pull off in a combat situation. And the very fact that the spell is tied to the base means it won't be used in future combats. But how do you figure how much more powerful she can go, and what the odds of succeeding are?

[Greywind]

Her Power skill.

[bigdamnhero]

Her Power skill.

OK...I was looking for something a little more specific. [Rolls ] I made it by 3; how many AP/RP does that give me? Is that enough to hold Doctor Druid? Or Doctor Strange? Or Dormammu? Devil's in the details on this one.

[Greywind]

From a game aspect, while in the base, the character will (should) have access to paraphernalia that will reduce the costs, allow her to extend the time the spell would last, etc. Part of having a lab available.

[Hyper-Man]

Isn't Stronghold in the Champions Universe based on a similar concept in the Marvel Universe designed by Tony Stark and/or Henry Pym?  Wouldn't the same basic design questions apply in this situation?  It sure looks like Stronghold is arguably a character base purpose built to be a prison.  The question boils down to how quickly and effectively can a character modify a personal base to fill the roll of prison.  The Justice Lords did a pretty good job of it vs. their Justice League counterparts (Flash being the 1 member they couldn't account for since their version was already dead).  That example suggests a requirement of understanding the nature of a potential prisoner's abilities for the prison to be effective.

[Greywind]

Stronghold is based on the Vault. The Raft came after the Negative Zone prison failed.

[bigdamnhero]

From a game aspect, while in the base, the character will (should) have access to paraphernalia that will reduce the costs, allow her to extend the time the spell would last, etc. Part of having a lab available.

Cheaper, longer-lasting, sure. But I'm looking for more AP, not fewer RP, and there's not really a mechanism for that in RAW. I guess maybe you could build her wizard's lab with an Aid Magic. But the write-up for power suppressors in Stronghold is for 20d6 of Suppress, all powers, all sfx; that's over 1000 AP even without AOE - that's a lotta Aid! 

 

A 20d6 Suppress Everything would of course be wildly overpowering if we let a character carry around a portable version; but less so for an immobile device that only serves to hold onto people you've already captured. Maybe our heroine can only manage 15d6, and can only suppress one sfx at a time. Great! That gives me something to work with/against, and a sense of how possible it is for a given captive to escape. But I don't have a good way to land on 15d6 instead of 12d6 or 20d6.

 

The question boils down to how quickly and effectively can a character modify a personal base to fill the roll of prison.

Exactly. I don't mind handwaving "how quickly" but I'd love to have some quasi-consistent basis for "how effectively." It's easy to just roll dice and say "OK, you've got a containment cell built." But it doesn't tell me how powerful it is, and "as powerful as the plot requires it to be" can lead to frustration all around.

 

The Justice Lords did a pretty good job of it vs. their Justice League counterparts (Flash being the 1 member they couldn't account for since their version was already dead).  That example suggests a requirement of understanding the nature of a potential prisoner's abilities for the prison to be effective.

[Love that episode! Still the best "Superman Goes Bad" storyline anywhere.] Of course there are also multiple examples of "one size fits all" suppressors that work on any superpower, but I agree knowing your opponent's abilities would be worth a bonus at least.