Power Armor Multiform - (Help)

[Kajaro]

For sake of argument, lets assume we're using DEFENDER (or IRON MAN if your not up on your Champions heroes) for the example here.

 

Lets say DEFENDER adds a new feature to his POWER SUIT (which is an OIF Focus) that allows his suit to transform from a Flying Energy Projector to a Ground Brick.

 

That would be MULTIFORM.

 

The question is - if you build the BRICK form, do you build it out of points to JUST cover the armor - or does the second form have to include the Character (or the pilot) as well?

 

Make sense?

 

Logically I would assume MULTIFORM would only cover the vehicle - but HERO only talks about it in the sense of a second form - so would you include the pilot user in that second form?

 

Boggled & Bundersnatched,

 

Kajaro

[Lord Liaden]

Hmm... If we're talking Focussed Powers and Characteristics, then I would include the pilot/wearer in the cost of the second Multiform, since the end result would be the character in the armor - the armor isn't really functional as a separate character on its own. Mind you, the abilities that the second form gains from the armor should still receive the OIF Limitation which would bring down its cost. I would also put the Focus Lim on the the Multiform cost itself, as the ability to change armor configuration is clearly a property of the armor rather than an innate character ability.

 

The situation would be different, though, if the armor were built as a Vehicle. Vehicle stats exist independent of the pilot (it's essentially a different type of character), so you'd only need Multiform for the vehicle itself. No Focus cost break, of course.

 

Besides Multiform, another possibility would be to place the abilities that differ from one armor configuration to another into fixed slots in a Multipower, with the shifting of the slots representing shifting the armor's form.

 

I hope that makes sense to you.

[Dr Divago]

Cyclone-like Powered Armor

 

Maybe a close related question...

in a one-shot session i've made (for con, but unflortunately i've never played this ) i've made a Powered Armor character who wear a transformable powered armor, similar to cyclone motorbike-armor in Robotech (Mospeada) series (yeah is a long time ago...)

After some topic in an italian newsgroup, and searching in the net, i've finally builded this like a separate Armor (with OIHID) with all power linked to this (with a -0 limitation) and a separate Honde motorbike with a -1/4 (or -1/2?) limitation "not in hero id"

i think is a little complex, but think less complex to explain to player that don't known about Hero...

 

do you have more ideas?

[CrosshairCollie]

I've got a character I did a similar concept with. You have to include the basic character in the points ... I just made sure all the unfocussed information was the same in every form (same STR, same DEX, etc), then modified the focussed stuff.

[TheEmerged]

Multiform is a complete rework, so yes you'd have to include the "base character" points.

 

One way to think of this however might be to use the mechanic I used for AlphaBeth, a submission to the Name The Hero contest that didn't win. AlphaBeth had 26 multiforms -- that differed only in how the 100pts the "base" form paid for the multiform power were spent on the additional forms. So the base form was 250 points in abilities plus 100pts for the Multform, and the 26 forms had the identical 250 initial points but 100 extra points of powers/skills/attributes -- in some cases with some minor changes. In practice, she had a 100 point multipower.

 

Which brings me to this -- if the character's skills, disadvantages, and most attributes aren't changing you might be better off thematically to use a multipower. I'm not saying you should but that you should consider it.

[Doc Democracy]

Like the others said, I'm not sure I would use multiform for the purpose though I might under certain circumstances.

 

You can achieve what you want using a multipower and if you wanted even more variability - flying form/brick form/speed form/etc then you could consider a variable power pool for the changing abilities.

 

I think multiform comes into its own when you want to change disads etc. If you were thinking that you wanted to change disads for each form then I think you would be better going for the multiform. But yes - you have to sort the character out from the ground up each time (the pilot is part of the form).

[Dust Raven]

I guess I need not mention that Multiform need to include the entire character...

 

Asa note, however, since some have mentioned using Multipowers and such... I have a villain that used power armor, and he has about half a dozen suits for various occasions. Most of his suits have unique Power Frameworks built into them, which you can't simulate with just a Multipower (can't put another Multipower, or any Framework, into a Multipower). I was only able to do this by using Multiform.

 

I'm currently experiementing with VPPs though...