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Vulnerabilities & Susceptibilities


Amorkca

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Right. Tho also the former are both things that affect everyone and were just more effective against those characters, whereas Kryptonite is completely harmless to normals. Which is the major mechanical distinction between Vulnerabilities and Susceptibilities under RAW.

 

Meanwhile back when a Green Lantern ring didn't work on anything yellow, that's more a Limitation on the ring's powers (including forcefield) than either a Vulnerability or Susceptibility. All valid approaches of course, and I don't see a problem either way. Just interesting to see what's "in fashion" at the moment.

 

Or take the old bit where Wonder Woman used to lose her powers when she was tied up by a man because William Moulton Marston was one weird dude. You could build that as a Susceptibility (assuming you use Susceptibilities for effects other than just causing damage), but then you have to establish what's her "baseline" without her powers. Do all her Chars drop to 10? Or just her physical Chars? Assuming her wrists are bound but she can still move, can she still use her Acrobatics and if so at what Roll? What about her CSLs and Weapon Familiarities? Presumably her Lasso doesn't lose it's powers, right? So a more technically-accurate version might be to decide exactly what she loses when bound, and slap a Conditional Power Limitation on those items only. Depends on how often you think it'll come up, and how much rules lawyering vs handwaving you want to do.

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Right. Tho also the former are both things that affect everyone and were just more effective against those characters, whereas Kryptonite is completely harmless to normals. Which is the major mechanical distinction between Vulnerabilities and Susceptibilities under RAW.

 

Meanwhile back when a Green Lantern ring didn't work on anything yellow, that's more a Limitation on the ring's powers (including forcefield) than either a Vulnerability or Susceptibility. All valid approaches of course, and I don't see a problem either way. Just interesting to see what's "in fashion" at the moment.

 

Or take the old bit where Wonder Woman used to lose her powers when she was tied up by a man because William Moulton Marston was one weird dude. You could build that as a Susceptibility (assuming you use Susceptibilities for effects other than just causing damage), but then you have to establish what's her "baseline" without her powers. Do all her Chars drop to 10? Or just her physical Chars? Assuming her wrists are bound but she can still move, can she still use her Acrobatics and if so at what Roll? What about her CSLs and Weapon Familiarities? Presumably her Lasso doesn't lose it's powers, right? So a more technically-accurate version might be to decide exactly what she loses when bound, and slap a Conditional Power Limitation on those items only. Depends on how often you think it'll come up, and how much rules lawyering vs handwaving you want to do.

 

Wonder Woman lost her strength when her "Bracelets of Submission" were chained together by a man, recalling the slavery Amazons suffered at the hands of men.  When her bracelets are removed she goes Berserk.  

 

The writers of later issues simply had someone cuff Wonder Woman to make her helpless.

 

On the family friendly TV show they had her strength coming from her IAF: Magic Belt.

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A lot of older Champions products gave characters kind of weird vulnerabilities. I don't see most of those as being appropriate. It's not like the X-Men have a lot of vulnerable characters. I guess Colossus would be vulnerable to magnetic powers or something. But it's not like Cyclops or Nightcrawler or Storm or... most of the characters don't have them.

 

So I don't think it's inappropriate that most player characters don't have them either. It really depends on what kinds of characters you wish to emulate. I'd say the stock Champions published characters display it more frequently than the normal source material.

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Wonder Woman lost her strength when her "Bracelets of Submission" were chained together by a man, recalling the slavery Amazons suffered at the hands of men.  When her bracelets are removed she goes Berserk.  

 

The writers of later issues simply had someone cuff Wonder Woman to make her helpless.

 

On the family friendly TV show they had her strength coming from her IAF: Magic Belt.

Yeah, the TV Magic Belt also came with Limited Power: 0 STR to resist Grabs. ;)

 

BTW, anyone interested in WW or in early comics history should check out Jill Lepore's The Secret History of Wonder Woman, a fascinating biography of Marston, who as I may have mentioned in passing was one weird dude, but an interesting one.

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Vulnerabilities seem to be mostly a gold/silver age thing and then really obvious ones (Human Torch vs cold, for example).  Not many characters created after 1970 had vulnerabilities that I can think of.

Hmm...the new Ms. Marvel is Vulnerable to electric shocks - they screw up her stretching abilities. But that's the only recent example I can think of off the top of my head.

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Some susceptibilities:

* Fear-based powers

* One of a plethora of illicit and/or prescription drugs

* Name the sound-based effect of your choice (dog whistle? radio waves? sonics?)

* Name the element of your choice from the periodic table

* Name the food (peanuts?  shellfish?) or food ingredient/component (red dye no. 5?  gluten?) of your choice

* Name the chemical compound of your choice (salt? alcohol? caffeine? nicotine? plastic?)

* Name the environmental condition of your choice (high heat? high radiation? high pressure?  vaccum/low pressure?)

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Don't forget Holiness vul and susc for those foul creatures of the night!

 

As for Chi one game presents Chi as positive, negative and netraul so negative could be affected by positive chi or vice versa.

The idea of positive and negative chi is the idea of Ying and Yang. I used vulnerability to positive chi for my Dio Brando homage, Cooper Mason.

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* Name the food (peanuts?  shellfish?) or food ingredient/component (red dye no. 5?  gluten?) of your choice

* Name the chemical compound of your choice (salt? alcohol? caffeine? nicotine? plastic?)

I don't generally award Susceptabilities or Vulnerabilities for things the character must voluntarily ingest in order for it to affect them; it's not like Dr. Evil is going to hurt you buy throwing peanuts at you. So I tend to think of those more as Physical Limitations. Not saying that's the right/best/only way to do it, and honestly a 5 point Comp is a 5 point Comp regardless of what you call it so I'm not sure it matters.

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Susceptibilities don't have to be something like kryptonite.  

 

Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer was captured by government agents and had a chip inplanted in his brain that caused him pain if he attacked a normal human.

 

Susceptibility:  When He Attacks Humans, 3d6 STUN/Instant (Common)

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I believe Cassandra but I must've missed that episode.

 

Wonder Woman revealed the sources of her strength was the Magic Belt in "Fausta Nazi Wonder Woman" after she had fallen through a trap door, was stunned with a dose of chloroform, and bound with her own magic lasso.

 

The Magic Belt was pulled off Wonder Woman by a Nazi woman when her back was turned in "Judgement from Outer Space Part 2".  

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She also lost her belt in Bushwackers and I think the Feminium Mystique, both Season 1. She also voluntarily removed her belt to surrender in the Man Who Could Move The World at the beginning of Season 2, but after that I think they dropped that particular plot device. Ironically in the show removing her bracelets had no effect unlike in the comics.

 

Yes I did fixate on that show at a formative age, why do you ask?

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She also lost her belt in Bushwackers and I think the Feminium Mystique, both Season 1. She also voluntarily removed her belt to surrender in the Man Who Could Move The World at the beginning of Season 2, but after that I think they dropped that particular plot device. Ironically in the show removing her bracelets had no effect unlike in the comics.

 

Yes I did fixate on that show at a formative age, why do you ask?

 

Neither Wonder Woman or Wonder Girl lost their belts in the Feminium Mystique, but they had their bracelets taken from them.  Wonder Woman also surrendered her bracelets in "The Last of the $2 Bills".

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