SPD and the NCM-Capped Superhero

[eepjr24]

Maybe odd, but I generally ended up above the mark with disadvantages. They were just an opportunity to flesh out the characters background and make them "real". Now, some of them never really came up (which is fine since I took no points for a lot of them anyway), but they were always there as hooks if the GM needed something to riff from. Mostly the extra's took the form of hunted or psych limits, former opponents or unusual situations that triggered a reaction from some past fight or innocent they were not able to shield completely from harm. Much easier to pull off in Champions or higher powered games where the character has been for a while than for example teen Champs or low powered fantasy.

 

- E

[Christopher R Taylor]

Maybe odd, but I generally ended up above the mark with disadvantages.

I would with some characters, but not with most.  Some concepts are more simple than others, have less of a tortured background or strange weaknesses than others.

 

But in my experience as a player and GM, the truth is only a few ever come up in play anyway.

[Amorkca]

I like it when players give me more hooks to play with, it adds to the game!!

[Scott Anderson]

The way I have decided to tackle it is, give the character a SPD 5, but a dangerously low amount of END.  Coupled with a 10-point Physical Limitation, he's going to have to stop to rest more often than other, younger heroes.  As a martial artist, I judge 30 END to be pretty low.  He could conceivably use 20 END in a normal SPD-5 Turn of combat.

[massey]

I was thinking about NCM last night, and approached it from a different way.  I think this might be more useful.

 

What if you made a form of NCM apply to every character, and it applied to all stats and powers, but it could be set to any level on a campaign by campaign basis?

 

Here's what I mean by that.  You start a new campaign and you assign limits across the board for your characters.  Maybe give higher points than normal because you expect that the characters will exceed those limits in multiple areas.  So we'll say you have a 5th edition game that would normally be 350 points, but in this case you give them 415 or something.  And you set the following campaign limits:

 

Damage -- 11D6

Def -- 20/20 (10/10 r)

Spd -- 5

OCV/DCV -- 8

Stun -- 40

 

Everything beyond those limits costs double.  And characters are expected to exceed those limits in one or two places.  And then you establish a second break point, and everything past that costs triple.  And then past that costs quadruple.  And this should pretty much result in a lot of well-rounded characters, and it gives flexibility in character design but makes people pay significantly if they're going to exceed campaign standards.  So, an example character would look something like this:

 

Captain Eyeblast has a 23 Dex, 20 Def, and a 5 Spd.  He pays regular price for these.  But he also carries around a 16D6 Energy Blast, and he's got an 11 OCV with it.  So for the EB, he pays 55 points for the first 11D6.  And we'll say the break point is set every 10 active points for an attack.  So to bump the 11D6 attack up to 13D6, he pays (10x2) 20 points.  And then to go to 15D6, he pays (10x3) 30 points.  And then for the final D6, he pays (5x4) 20 more points.  So he can have an attack that is well outside of campaign guidelines, but he's paying (55+20+30+20) 125 points out of his 415 total for the attack.  And then his OCv is 8 base, which he paid normal for.  But then he's got +3 OCV with combat skill levels (2 point levels).  So we'll say the break point there is every point of OCV.  So he's already at the max, and so the doubling begins immediately.  So +3 OCV means he's paying (4+6+8) 18 points total instead of 6 points total.

 

You could have different campaign limit settings for different types of game.  A Teenage Summer Camp Massacre game might have an "ultra-realistic" setting where NCM is set at 15 primary stats, 4 PD and ED, a 3 Spd.  Whereas a Heroes of Greek Myth game might have NCM set at 25 or 30.

 

The idea is that it becomes a tool to help the GM communicate with players, and tell them what kind of characters he wants to see in his game.  I think this could be very useful in conjunction with a good genre guide.

[bigdamnhero]

The way I have decided to tackle it is, give the character a SPD 5, but a dangerously low amount of END.  Coupled with a 10-point Physical Limitation, he's going to have to stop to rest more often than other, younger heroes.  As a martial artist, I judge 30 END to be pretty low.  He could conceivably use 20 END in a normal SPD-5 Turn of combat.

I can't believe that idea didn't occur to me - it's simpler and actually seems to fit the original concept better!

[Lucius]

For an aged character, I "sold off" STR and Movements and "bought back" those abilities as described here. BOD was "sold off" to 5, and then 5 pts of BOD bought back as described here.

 

 

"Age is a monster that may yet slay me."

Notes: These "Powers" represent the infirmities of age.

3 1) +12 STR (12 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x6 END; -2 ½) 6

3 2) Running +8m (8m total) (8 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x4 END; -1 ½) 4

1 3) Swimming +4m (4m total) (2 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x2 END; -½) 2

2 4) Leaping +8m (8m forward, 4m upward) (Accurate) (9 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x6 END; -2 ½) 6

2 5) +5 BODY (5 Active Points); Limited Power Does not count if below 0 ((that is, dies at negative 5, not negative 10); -1)

 

Of course, I also gave the character

 

"I learned and trained in shrines and monasteries few know exist"

,

,

4 5) Breath Control: +9 REC (9 Active Points); Limited Power only for END, not STUN (-1)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

An old man with a palindromedary

[bigdamnhero]

That reminds me I once had a player take this Complication for an elderly PC:

 

15      Susceptibility:  Weakness: -3 to all Characteristics the day after heavy exertion per Turn (Common)