Building a Mega Buster (And possibly other potential problems)

[JackFlash]

So I'm trying to get used to the idea of building characters in Hero by working on various characters from different forms of media. One of my first stops was the old Blue Bomber, Megaman.

 

...And there I hit a dead end. His classic weapon, the Mega Buster, is an energy weapon (takes in solar energy, releases pellets of solid sunlight. Seriously.) and that's simple enough. Energy Blast, OIF, problem solved. But it's got two gimmicks to it.

 

The first gimmick is that it can be charged for two extra stages, providing two higher levels of damage. I figure bumping them up a die for each level ought to be fine, with the final one also having an AoE element I'll figure out later. But, since it doesn't run on Charges that can be Boosted, I'm not entirely certain how to create a mechanic where you hold back an attack for a Phase or two to make it more powerful. Charging it also doesn't take any extra energy to fire than a normal shot (that is, 0 END either way. It's kind of a broken weapon for tabletop.)

 

The second gimmick is what's called in-universe the Variable Weapon System/Variable Tool System. When he defeats boss robots, he gains either one of their weapons or a weapon based on the weapons they were using. These have Charges, unlike the main weapon, and most of them are gonna be barriers of some kind or repainted Energy Blasts. But I'm uncertain of what the best way to represent that would be. A Variable Power Pool with a series of blank slots, OIF, and a limitation on max number carried and another limitation saying "Must be claimed from another Robot Master" or something along those lines?

[Duke Bushido]

Don't know much about MegaMan, but you've got a couple of options on the boosted power level.  You can do a multipower with different EBs on it to simulate the different levels and options.   Points balance is usually doable by plopping a list of advantages on the smaller powers to get the AP up for the multipower: Rduced END, variable SFX, etc. 

 

Which brings up the items from bosses. 

 

Do a power pool: only for items taken from vanquished enemies.  Do a single powerful EB and tack on variable SFX.  Honestly, the pool would be easier unless 6e has legalized "variable Advantage," in which case plop on a +1 or so of that. 

 

Going back to that first MP:  build one Blast, and have a multipower of naked Advantages you can apply to it on a  slot-by-slot basis. 

 

Consider just using an Aid for the "moat powah!" component. 

 

There really are tons of options.  Hopefully someone more familiar with the source material (other than Black Tiger, I never really liked platfofmers) will pop in and offer specific suggestions. 

[JackFlash]

I saw Aid suggested elsewhere for a similar issue, but it was just different enough that I wasn't certain it would all fit in.

 

All right, so. Buster shots in a multipower, buying multiple versions for each attack or piling on Aid. Boss weapons in a VPP (Speaking of, VPPs make me feel so dumb leafing through them. I always feel like I'm missing something important.) with specific limitations.

 

That's simpler than I thought it might be. Thanks. (Though I'm definitely open to other takes.)

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

I worked on a MMX game for HERO, so I've been down this road before! 

 

I built Charging as a custom Adder: +10 per "level", half price for each additional "level".  Charging let the user spend an attack action to give their next attack +2 DCs and +2 OCV, stacking up to a maximum number of times equal to the number of "levels" of Charging purchased for the power.  You can't hold a charge indefinitely (though for a Turn or two lying in ambush is fine, if you can deal with the glowing and noise) and if you're Stunned or KO'd you lose the charge. 

So the megabuster might be 8d6 Charging 2.  Spend one Phase powering up and now it's 10d6 and +2 OCV.  Spend two and it's 12d6 and +4 OCV and going to hurt. 

Under the hood, this is built as +2d6 and +2 OCV from 2 point CSLs (14 AP) with a "Delayed Use" Advantage (+1/4) and the Extra Phase (-3/4) Limitation. 

 

I built the VWES as a Multipower of a character's buster (generally, though some characters based it off their gimmick weapon instead).  Every slot had its own set of Charges, but other than that there wasn't any real unity. 

Instead of charging points for the slots, I was going to just give one PC a boss weapon after each boss retired.  The PCs could choose who got the weapon, but once somebody owned it that data was locked to them. 

[JackFlash]

I'm not quite comfortable enough with the system to work out custom adders and all that!  From my understanding, though, this doesn't seem like a bad approach? Of course, I'd probably tone the damage down some to reflect the difference in power levels between the Classic Series and X.

[massey]

Yeah, I think I'd follow Gnome Body's advice on the Mega Buster.

 

Let's say he starts with a 10D6 Energy Blast for his normal attack (could be more, could be less, it's up to you and whatever the standards are in your game).  Then he's going to get +2D6 (or whatever) Energy Blast, Delayed Use (+1/4), Full Phase or Extra Phase, and I'd say something like "Must Use With Next Attack" (-1/4).  So that way he spends a phase or however long charging up, and then he can run around with it held so his next attack is bigger.  But it's gotta be his very next attack.

 

For the "Boss Weapons" category, you've got a few different options.  In a Mega Man campaign, you might give him a Multipower, and at the beginning of the game he's only got one slot for it -- Mega Buster.  Then as the game goes on and he defeats the Robot Masters, he gets XP that he uses to purchase an extra slot for the Multipower.

 

On the other hand, in a game that's not centered around Mega Man's player, where he's expected to just be a part of a team with other characters, you may have to do something different.  You could have a Variable Power Pool, with the limitation "must defeat other robot to add their weapons to his own".  That's whatever limitation you want it to be.  Then in the course of gameplay, he'd just keep a list of robots with cool powers that he'd defeated that he wanted to mimic.  He's still limited by the size of the power pool, so you could control the power level pretty easily.

 

Another thing you might do is build it all with a few Multipower slots and Variable Advantage and Variable Special Effects.

 

75 point Multipower

--Slot #1:  10D6 Energy Blast (regular gun), variable special effects* (+1/4) plus 2D6 Energy Blast (mega buster) Delayed Use (+1/4), Full Phase (-1/2)

*variable special effects can be any sfx of a "boss" opponent he has already defeated

 

Slot #1 gives Mega Man the ability to shoot a 10D6 EB of any special effect (from a defeated opponent), or a 12D6 EB of his normal attack that he has charged up.  You could then add a few more slots of attacks that aren't just a simple EB.

 

Alternatively again, you could go with just a bigger power.

 

10D6 Energy Blast, variable special effects (+1/4), +1/2 variable advantage (+1), limited advantages available (-1/2 lim on the advantage), plus 2D6 Energy Blast (mega buster) Delayed Use (+1/4), Full Phase (-1/2)

 

So your normal blaster is 10D6 of "blue energy zap".  Your +1/2 variable advantage starts off assigned to Zero Endurance (you can shoot it all day).  You can charge up your Mega Buster to 12D6.  Then as you defeat opponents, you get access to more special effects and more potential advantages.  Metal Man's "metal blades" might be Armor Piercing.  Quick Man's "quick boomerangs" might be Autofire x5.  Crash Man's "crash bombs" might be Explosion.  Sorry, I only ever really played the second game very much.

[PhilFleischmann]

If the defeated robot's weapon is defined as a universal focus, then you can pick it up and use it without having to buy any additional power.

 

For a boostable blast (or any other power), you can buy it in pieces, with the appropriate limitations and advantages:

 

12d6 Blast - 60 points (plain)

 

+2d6 Blast, 10 Active, Extra Time - Extra Phase (-3/4) - 6 Real points

 

+2d6 Blast, AOE (for the entire 16d6), 90 Active, Extra Time - Extra 2 Phases (-1) - 45 Real points

 

So you can do a 12d6 normal Blast every phase, or a 14d6 Blast every other phase, or a 16d6 AOE Blast every three phases.  Season to taste.

[Duke Bushido]

See?

 

_Lots_ of options!

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

You know the simplest answer to the MegaBlast is that it’s just a Haymakered Blast.

[Gnome BODY (important!)]

14 minutes ago, Ninja-Bear said:

You know the simplest answer to the MegaBlast is that it’s just a Haymakered Blast.

The massive DCV penalty doesn't really fit with how charged shots work in the games, though.  You're actually a little better off defensively if you rely on charged shots, just because you spend less time needing to move in offensive ways.  It's a question of ease of implementation versus fidelity to source with no "correct" answer. 

[JackFlash]

30 minutes ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

It's a question of ease of implementation versus fidelity to source with no "correct" answer. 

That said, since I'm trying to use this to get a grip on the system, I wanna hew closer to setting fidelity, even it it means taking a trickier route to get there.

 

Sometimes the simpler stuff works out, though. Which is kind of why I'm coming here, to see what people suggest! Somehow, though, I didn't expect this many options for a charge mechanic, ahaha.

[Ninja-Bear]

1 hour ago, Gnome BODY (important!) said:

The massive DCV penalty doesn't really fit with how charged shots work in the games, though.  You're actually a little better off defensively if you rely on charged shots, just because you spend less time needing to move in offensive ways.  It's a question of ease of implementation versus fidelity to source with no "correct" answer. 

No doubt about it. Just throwing out an option. 

[JackFlash]

Thinking on it, I do remember seeing something, somewhere, suggesting using a Compound Power to represent "holding" an attack to make it stronger the way we're talking about. But I don't think Compound Powers work quite like that. Does anyone else read it like that or am I processing the thing wrong?

[Ninja-Bear]

They might be considering +X Blast extra time as a compound power. I think this works nicely.

[Ninja-Bear]

Jackflash on me thing I highly recommend that no matter the build, run a few test battles. Just to get the feel of how it works in game.  For example you could fire off a few shots using Haymaker against looks and see if the 1/2 DCV is totally bad then run a few with +XD6 extra time and see how it rolls. As a rule of thumb, usually the more faithful a power is to another game, it becomes more complex. So build it that way and see if the complexity is worth it. (It might to you and that’s all that matters.) if not then see where you could change it to suit but still go for the feel of the power. (FWIW, it took me a long time to understand that).  Btw if there is a certain mechanic you don’t want to deal with that’s fine too. Use what suits you.

[Doc Democracy]

The other thing to remember (when presenting to the players) is that all of the complexity is in the build (to work out the point cost).

 

On a character sheet this could be as simple as

 

10D6 Energy Blast.  For each phase delay add 1D6. Maximum of 14D6.

[IndianaJoe3]

I favor buying the base attack as being a standard half-phase attack, and using increasing levels of Extra Time on each additional die to represent charging up. For example:

 

8d6 Blast, +1d6 (Delayed Phase), +1d6 (Delayed Phase and Full Phase), +1d6 (Extra Segment), +1d6 (Full Phase, Delayed Phase)

 

The character can have an 8d6 Blast that goes of on his DEX, a 9d6 Blast that goes at half his DEX, a 10d6 Blast that takes a Full Phase at half his DEX, an 11d6 attack that lands during the next Segment (like a Haymaker), or a 12d6 Blast that activates on the character's next phase.