Steve

For a city, you don’t need to be very detailed. Here are the docks, there is the city center region, the local university, and so on. Add more pieces to it and detail as needed for players.

Call it Generic City or Everytropolis and start playing.

In a WWII game, you could set it up like how the first MCU Captain America movie did. Cap wasn’t directly fighting Nazi Germany’s main forces but the HYDRA organization they funded. His fight against the Red Skull was a subset of the greater war raging around them.

You could do a campaign the same way. There are supervillains, monsters and mad scientists working for the Nazis, and the heroes are focused on fighting them. While they aren’t easily trouncing Nazi soldiers in the various battlefields, their efforts are keeping the mad scientists and supervillains occupied, or _they_ will trounce Allied soldiers.

7 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

A variation if the exploration theme could be that the party is dwarves. Centuries ago your stronghold was put under a protective sleep spell to protect you from the disaster that was coming. You’ve awoke but no longer know what’s going on the outside world. Further, you’ve got no response from any other stronghold. Whats happened to them?

Post-apocalypse fantasy is a good idea and can be fun if done well. Using dwarves could be like a fantasy version of the Morrow Project or Fallout. Who knows what they will find on the surface as they look for the other vaults…err, I mean strongholds.

“In the name of the Moon, I’ll punish you!”

Sorry. Could not resist.

Part of the problem starts with defining the power level. It’s pretty easy to make 50 or 75-point town guards, policemen or soldiers, but a bit more challenging to make 500 or 750-point superhumans.

In Hudson City, you could do a pretty focused  police campaign with 100-point Normals dealing with street crime, or you could have masked vigilantes of 300-points all working to take down the Card Shark organization.

I’m not sure why, but having the holy symbol on the back of the hand gives me a Lensman vibe.

I suddenly have this image of a bar where Charm and Conversation get bonuses.

People could pay money to use it.

A lab is usually used for analyzing something, so I guess an Interaction Skill lab would be for reenacting social scenes and analyzing the results?

A genius scientist could have Westworld-type androids play other people as they try out different ways to handle an interaction, I suppose.

It’s probably not legal and seems pretty cheesy, but I just had a thought about setting up an NND attack so that it only works if you have the Life Support defense that would normally work against poisons.

So, if you don’t have Life Support versus poison, it won’t affect you. The special effect explanation is it’s turning your own immune system against you, or something like that.

I wonder if you could model it by adding BODY to a person wearing armor like their being hit with an Aid effect, those added points getting worn off first by damage to the armor that would need to be repaired. Once the armor loses all its extra BODY, then all the damage that gets through its defenses starts coming off the character. Magic armor would still give the same rDEF as normal versions but offer more BODY increase.

By doing it this way, it extends character survivability but doesn’t render them into being nigh invulnerable. It just takes longer to put them down.

Maybe increase existing armor values by +1 rDEF for every two points of rDEF they currently provide? Platemail would go to 12 then, which seems like it would be sufficient.

12 hours ago, Mr. R said:

I like this idea, but for right now I am going with the KISS principle.  Keep It Short and Simple.  I have to go with the assumption that my players will NOT be Hero savants.  So I want as much as possible to keep it plug and play.  Want to play a cleric?  Here is the list of deities and what portfolios they control.  Want to be a healer?  OK your a follower of Readaer.  Oh you want Call Lightning?  Nope.  

Well, to keep it at its absolute simplest in this one thing, you shouldn’t require players to calculate any skill roll modifiers based on Active Points. I would suggest setting the RSR Limitation at zero so their RSR roll is the Contact roll. That would be the RAW solution.

The non-RAW solution would be to leave the RSR limitation as currently constituted and then not bother with Active Point modifiers to the roll.
 

I suppose you could still have roll adders based on religious rank. That would just increase the roll and make the power more likely to activate, which makes a certain amount of sense. Higher ranks get listened to more often.

1 hour ago, Mr. R said:

So I redid all the NPC using the above Limitations.  Adding the Contact to about 14- then including new limitations actually netted a cost savings of about 1-15 pts based on the Original costs of the NPC,  125 pts saved about 5 pts, while Lady Lenora saved around 25 pts!

 

 

Anyway, I'll start posting the new versions for your approval!

That’s good to hear.

For the RSR, you could set it at -0 Limitation if you don’t want to have the roll reduced by the Active Points. That will eat up a bit of your cost savings. You could also leave it at its current value and just house rule that the roll is not modified by Active Points.

You could also set up special perks that offset the minuses, perhaps earned as part of rank among the faithful, or don’t apply minuses for spells that are in the favored portfolio of a deity. Like the healing god doesn’t give any penalties to healing magics they provide, but other portfolios they also provide access to are less favored so have the penalties.

Those are some other ways to give flavor.

19 hours ago, Mr. R said:

Ok.  I'll go back to the builds add a Contact use it as a RSR roll and further delineate what the Limitations are.  Also I'll add a 1/4 Good standing with deity.

 

So Limitations will look like this 

Good Standing with the deity (-1/4)

RSR based on contact roll

Gestures

Incantations

Concentration (1/2 DCV)

Charges

Custom limitation based on the power of the MP (-1/2 for 30pt, -1 for 45 pts, -1 1/2 for 60 pts, -2 for 75 pts, -2 1/2 for 90 pts)  This is to help offset the large cost of the pool at higher levels.

 

 

 

If you’re trying to cut costs for the larger Active Point multipowers, I suppose you could use your “Good Standing” limitation for them but vary the limitation amount per the structure you are already using for the custom limitation. It would seem to make sense that wielders of higher-powered prayers could be watched more closely by the deity providing the power.

23 hours ago, Mr. R said:

 

 

The Magic system is stol  err borrowed from Killer Shrike, the Spontaneous Casting Model.  The unspecified limitations are part of the package to keep the spell costs low.  

 

http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/HighFantasyHERO/MagicSystems/vancianSpontaneousMP.aspx

 

As far as faith based limitation, which I am assuming is a RSR (correct me it I am wrong) , no they don't have one.  The limited uses are hinderance enough I feel (though I could be wrong.)  Also each deity will have its own spell lists ( I'll have to get around to making one common document soon).  

 

Contrast this with the other three types of magic:

1)  Metier which uses a Large MP with RSR and balanced Advantages/Limitations (Ex 1/2 End and Diff to Dispel X4  / Incan and Gest and Conc) And uses a Mana poll system to fuel the spells but allows almost any type of spell, if you can fit it.

2)  Totem Magic where you get spell like powers based on animal totems BUT there are only 2 powers per totem and the powers max out at 30 AP

3)  Runecrafting, placing runes and using runes to make magic items 

 

Now if I am going to have deities in my world, then they will have some sort of effect based around their portfolio.  So Goddess of Earth will have an earthen hand ability.  Could a Metier caster duplicate it, yes, but why?  Just get a regular slot with a big TK.  

 

Anyway that is what I am trying to go for.  

 

BUT

 

If you think I am on the wrong track, please give me a good explanation why.  What suggestions would you make?  (No I am not being facetious, I want to learn)

For a divine source, I think having a limitation expressed something like “must be in good standing with deity” would be a good limitation to replace the unspecified ones. This shows that they are getting their powers from a divine source.

For a RSR, I like what the Narosia campaign setting used, having a deity as a Contact instead of a skill roll, and that Contact roll functioned as the RSR. There were also Perks that added to the roll for being a favored servant. It gave it a nice flavor that you are drawing upon your patron/matron for magical support.

In looking at these two clerics, I must be missing something that differentiates their magic from that of non-divine spellcasters. There is a minor multipower limitation on the greater multipowers that is unspecified in both builds, so maybe that is a common, faith-based limitation of some kind?

The 15-pointed multipowers on each build don’t have a faith or standing limitation on them, so they seem more like magic spells than prayers.

1 hour ago, Foxiekins said:

I think I have him about laid out, but I could use help with a name...  I really doubt the Military would seriously refer to him as Private Perfection...  I figure he would be assigned to a Special Forces Unit composed of "special" talent, so he might just be referred to by his surname, Kowalski...

Well, Captain America maintained a secret identity as he was America’s secret weapon, so a code name/secret ID would be in line with this.

I could see a Cosmic VPP in this (0 time, no skill roll), allocating points based on the DI’s instructions, so perhaps a form of No Conscious Control.

Bricks with an ability like “Super Strength Smash Through” (I think is the name) would be able to burst out of any Entangle if they can use it from within. I don’t really have a problem with them being limited to using it only from the outside of one.

It strikes me as a game balance decision.

46 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

 

Book Of The Empress p. 99 is very clear on that point:

 

"Furthermore, other species, both within Earth’s dimension and from other dimensions that are home to sentient life, have their own Parterres based on their cultures, their perspectives on Reality, and so forth. Typically dimensional travelers (of any sort) are only aware of the Imaginal Realms pertaining to their own species; they can’t perceive (much less travel to) other species’s Parterres. That’s why Humans don’t find Perseids, Mon’dabi, V’hanians, or Ka-ree in Faerie or Babylon, and why those realms don’t reflect other species’s thoughts and beliefs. However, some powerful mystics (including the likes of Skarn and Tyrannon) can visit any Parterre they know of."

 

So it sounds like near-godlike entities can do this, but lower-powered sorts can’t.

That said, I guess a human mage could take their Perseid buddy to Babylon. The Perseid just couldn’t go on their own.

Another question occurs to me regarding parterres. Do alien worlds have their own separate parterres without links to others? Or do all worlds in a given universe share them in some kind of greater structure that allows visits?

10 minutes ago, DShomshak said:

The Kings of Edom themselves are definitely singular. There are no alternate Vulshoths or Dizzhoraths. They are too, well, "Outside the System" to exist in multiples.

Since the Kings of Edom are singular, then what region of the Qliphothic Realms do they occupy? I thought they lurked amidst the dying worlds of the Qliphothic mirrors of Earth. They are apparently in a lower(?) plane of the tree since they have no alternates.

It’s interesting to learn that they are singular beings. That definitely gives them a far stranger feel and makes them more of a threat. They only have to succeed once with just one Luther Black.

They would also be causing problems for V’Han and her empire, and Edomite cults would be like a virulent infestation among her controlled worlds she can never completely wipe out because their source is beyond her reach.

This is an off-topic question, but it seems to relate.

How would the Qliphothic Realms fit into this? Is there only one version attached to the entire multiverse or does each universe have its own linked version?

If there is only one and the godlike denizens therein are also unique, DEMON becomes a multiversal threat, and there might be instances of different versions of DEMON working together across the dimensional barriers.

So, is there only one Faerie or are there infinite versions of Faerie unique to each universe?

It might give Faerie an interesting feel if it connects to all Earths at once. That crazy Fae talking about weird things might just be talking about real things on a different Earth and can’t understand why it’s audience doesn’t get what it’s talking about.

Perhaps the OP’s Shadow Queen is an avatar (fetch?) of the far more powerful one from 6th Edition. Their powers might link them somehow. This would offer a larger potential plotline, making the mortal Shadow Queen a sort of decoy enemy, like a Doombot.

Just a thought.