massey

I was with you until this bit.
 
Affects Desolid, as an advantage, means that an attack that would otherwise do no damage to a desolid character, does damage to a desolid character.  It is keyed into an aspect of the power that is not affected by the limitation you put on the desolid.
 
I am one of those that requires affect desolid powers to indicate what they are and why they affect a desolid character, many of those effects would probably also work against CPT INVULNERABLE.  Freaky interplay of powers.  I would also give players a clue that their freaky affect desolid power may have effect (unless, of course, the desolid was bought invisible).
 
The question of walking into traffic is a good one but CPT INVULNERABLE does interact with solid matter, he just is not harmed by it.  I would rule that it does the same as anyone else that walks into traffic.  He would be hit, the car would take damage as if it had hit a normal person.  Unless he had some ability to avoid it, the good captain would take knockback, he just would not take damage.
 
I would also say that, of course he can block for others, just like anyone else that can interact with materials from the solid world can.  It is no great advantage, anyone is allowed to block and they take no damage by doing so.  Jumping in front of an attack is simply a block on behalf of an attack directed at someone else, it is not affected by the desolid power.
 
Someone using the captain as cover would be using their noggin.  The man IS INVULNERABLE after all. 🙂 But beware of knockback....
 
Doc

Putting a limitation on Speed brings up a lot of arguments about exactly how it works, so I figured this way was easier to handle.

Invulnerability, in effect, is equivalent to "campaign damage classes" x 4(or better), plus perhaps knockback resistance = campaign damage classes.   So if a typical character has defenses = campaign damage classes x 2, and no knockback resistance, then the "value" of invulnerability  is equal to campaign damage classes x 2, plus maybe 10-20 points of knockback resistance.   If campaign dc  = 12, then that's 24 points(x 2 for both physical and energy), plus 10-20 more points.  60-70 active points.  At least, to me, that seems like a reasonable costing, assuming that said invulnerability will typically have conditions that limit the utility(i.e., things and circumstances under which it doesn't work or is less effective).  
So any mechanics you want to use to simulate the fx should have an active cost in the ballpark of 50-80 points, imo.  It could be extra rPD/ED, it could be damage negation, it could be damage reduction ala the APG, it could be my invisible DCV idea(or perhaps some funky version of missile deflection), it could be a force wall, absorption, desolidification, or even some weird suppression field vs attacks.  But it's a highly useful ability, a "stop sign" ability, even, so the cost should be somewhat prohibitive.   

Dear gods this the truth.
 
I don't know HOW many times I've been in a game where there's been this "Grand Mystery" that the GM has set up yet,  the only "clues" that could/would have been available are those that exist in his/her own head or things that the characters would understand but the *players* have no concept of.
 
Then having to sit there and listen to the rant and rave about how no one appreciates the time and effort they go through to prepare things like "this" is infuriating.
 
Even more infuriating is when they try and tell you that they explained and/or dangled clues in front of you and the general response from the gathered players is "No, you didn't".
 
It's really easy to pat yourself on the back and tell yourself how much of a genius you are when you're the one with all the clues . . . 
 
@Spence
Very nicely written.
 
I agree with you on the Sandbox campaign.  I've been in one or two and they don't last long.  I mean, not more than one or two sessions because there's absolutely nothing for the characters to do.  There's no focus or drive to move the characters forward.  Those type of campaigns may sound like they're going to be good because "no ones' tied down!" but i've yet to play in one, or hear of one that amounted to anything.

Well, you wouldn't have to know about sailing with me, because I don't know a damn thing about sailing.  You could fool me pretty easily.  But there are other areas where I know quite a bit about a topic.  That's one advantage to just glossing over things.  Keep it simple and you won't have players have to correct you all the time.
 
That's also why I don't like mysteries in RPGs.  Just because it makes sense in the GM's head doesn't mean it makes sense to the players.

And it's perfectly fine if people want to do that.  But can you really say it ruins your immersion if it isn't there?
 
Things that ruin my immersion are modern pop culture references in a fantasy world.  Taylor Swiftfoot the elf and Kanye the giant must rescue Queen Beyonce from the evil wizard Lord Weinstein.  My immersion also is ruined when somebody loses a character, and immediately their twin brother shows up.  He's got the exact same stats, is the same level, and has the same personality (except he's pissed at whoever let his brother die), and he wants you do hand over all his brother's equipment and gear.
 
Knowing it's a game world, where real life mundane issues aren't fully fleshed out, isn't an immersion breaker for me.  I don't need to know how often dragons poop, and the GM doesn't need to know it either.  You've also got the issue that we can only worldbuild to our own level of competence.  I've listened to too many people lovingly describe the detail of their worlds, and think to myself "this guy doesn't know how XYZ works..."

See I just like to fight dragons and stuff.

My father in law tested negative, thankfully.
 

It normally wouldn't.  That's why he's got a higher Speed.  The intent is for him to abort to whatever the best defense is, so that he doesn't have to face that issue.  If it were drawn on a comic book page, he wouldn't be doing anything other than standing still, shrugging off the attack.  Now obviously, he's not always gonna know what the best defense is.  That's life though.
 

 
Here Superman uses his held phase to go desolid.
 
Story-wise, he's not using an action (even though in game rules, that's exactly what is happening).  Story-wise, it's just the other guy's turn to go, and the attack harmlessly bounces off of Captain Invulnerable.  Now when he gets attacked by the ghost blaster power, the player may choose to switch away from Desolidification to some other power, but the character is just standing there.
 
Occasionally you'll get a situation where he guesses wrong, and an attack that doesn't seem that it should be particularly damaging will do a significant chunk of Stun to him.  That happens in comics too.  Sometimes you just get a weird interaction of powers.  And you can either come up with some BS explantion ("the ghost blaster is interacting with the strange energies I encountered earlier!  It's harming me even through my invulnerability!"), or you can have him pretend it doesn't hurt.  Instead of saying "yeeaargghh!" when he takes 25 Stun, he just laughs it off.  He's got 60 Stun, after all.

Easiest way to do "Invulnerable" is to just buy up his Defense, Con, Recovery, Body, and Stun to a level higher than would normally be allowed.  In a 12D6 game, a guy with 35 PD and ED and a 30 Con might as well be invulnerable.  It doesn't matter if you get through 7 Stun on an average hit, if the guy has 70 Stun and a 20 Recovery.  Just describe part of his power as the ability to "no sell" attacks and that's good enough.
 
A guy who focuses heavily on defensive powers can be close enough to invulnerable for government work. 

He has 15/15 Damage Resistance...

Captain Invulnerable
 
Str 60
Dex 20
Con 30
Body 15
Int 13
Ego 14
Pre 20
Com 12
 
PD 20
ED 20
Spd 7
Rec 18
End 60
Stun 60
 
15" Flight x4 noncombat
1" Flight Megascale (1" = 1 km)
 
15/15 Damage Resistance
 
40 point Multipower "Invulnerability"
--Desolidification, cannot pass through solid objects
--20/20 Force Field
--Missile Deflection (all), and +4 DCV
 
+2 OCV w/ punch, grab, and missile deflect
 
Breakfall 13-
Deduction 12-
Electronics 12-
Mechanics 12-
Paramedics 12-
Persuasion 13-
Teamwork 13-
 
Scientist
Biology 11-
Chemistry 11-
Physics 11-
 
 
Physical Limitation:  In combat, 2 points of Speed per turn must be used for holding action/aborting to defensive actions (max Spd 5 for attacks)
 
350 points total
-----
 
There you go.  That's a quick and dirty, 5 minute character.  He's super strong, he's got an array of what I consider to be classic competent superhero skills, and as long as you aren't stupid with him he'll be really hard to hurt.
 
His multipower lets him shrug off all kinds of stuff.  He just looks tougher when he's using it.  He practically... umm... glows with toughness, or something.
 
He gets actions on 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, and 12.  To prevent him from being lazy and just leaving his multipower in Force Field, he's got a physical limitation where he's supposed to use 2 actions per turn defensively.  Most phases he should probably hold until after everyone else has acted, but use it before he would lose his action.  So we'll say he starts the turn with his force field active.  Then on segment 2, he holds until towards the end of segment 3.  Nobody shoots at him with anything major (no Giga-Buster attacks, nobody throws a fuel truck at him), so as you get down to about Dex 10 on segment 3 he decides to fly over and punch somebody.  On segment 4 he holds again, knowing that the bulk of the opponents will probably be acting on segment 5, he holds until near the end of 5.  Again, nobody does anything crazy, so about Dex 10 of 5 he punches somebody again. 
 
Then on Dex 30 of Segment 6, Death Ninja jumps out of the shadows with his Atomic Blade and takes a swipe at our hero.  The player has peeked at the bad guy's character sheet and knows that it's an NND that Does Body.  So Captain Invulnerable aborts his Segment 6 and activates Desolidification.  Special effect-wise, it looks like the blade just bounces off of him.  Or the energy of the blade goes right into him, maybe even coming out the other side, but when the blade is pulled back out there's no injury apparent.  Game-wise, everybody knows it's Desolid and can react appropriately, because he didn't buy it invisible.  But for coolness and description, it just looks like it harmlessly bounced off.  Captain Invulnerable has now used one of his actions defensively.
 
On Segment 7 Dex 30, Death Ninja decides to go elsewhere.  He's an ambush hunter, and his best attack failed to do anything, and he doesn't want Captain Invulnerable to smack him with a car.  Since that was the good Captain's plan, and now he doesn't have an immediate target (and he likes to appear invulnerable), he holds action until the end of 8.  He's still Desolid at this time.  On Segment 8, Dex 20, Crazed Scientist Man whips out his Ghost Murderer Beam, which looks exactly like a Ghostbusters proton pack.  Captain Invulnerable thinks "Yipe!", and knowing it probably Affects Desolid, he decides to use his held action to switch to his Missile Deflection power and DCV levels.  His DCV goes up to 11, and he uses OCV 9 to try to block the incoming beam.  So whether he blocks it, or whether the scientist misses his new higher DCV, the visual effect is the same.  Captain Invulnerable performs a chest block and the beam harmlessly scatters off of him.  The hero has now used 2 of his actions defensively, and he's free to attack the rest of the turn.
 
On Segment 9, the player knows he wants to get in his attacks, so he's done holding action for now.  He switches back to Force Field, and flies over to the evil scientist and starts pounding him.  On segments 11 and 12 he does the same thing.
 
There you go.  Now, yeah it's possible that he'll get caught with his pants down.  He could blow a missile deflection roll, or switch to desolid and get hit with an affects desolid attack.  Them's the breaks.  Even Superman gets hit by things that lay him out on occasion.  That's why Captain Invulnerable has a really high Speed, so he can burn actions defensively to preserve his "I can't be hurt" mystique.

Easiest way to do "Invulnerable" is to just buy up his Defense, Con, Recovery, Body, and Stun to a level higher than would normally be allowed.  In a 12D6 game, a guy with 35 PD and ED and a 30 Con might as well be invulnerable.  It doesn't matter if you get through 7 Stun on an average hit, if the guy has 70 Stun and a 20 Recovery.  Just describe part of his power as the ability to "no sell" attacks and that's good enough.
 
A guy who focuses heavily on defensive powers can be close enough to invulnerable for government work. 

If I shoot you with my fire blast, you don't know if it's a 10D6 Energy Blast, a 5D6 Drain, or a 3D6+1 RKA.  You just know it's a fire blast.  You can't instantly identify the game mechanics just because an attack is visible.  Likewise you won't know if the guy you're shooting at has Desolid, a Force Field, or what.  You'll just know he activated some kind of full-body power, probably defensive in nature.

Again, an imposition of SFX that is not entirely necessary.  As GM, once the "can phase through solid objects" is taken off the table, I would be content for attacks to deflect off the character, almost lensing.
 
I do think you are focussing on the NAME of the mechanic rather than the EFFECT.  It is unlikely that you do this with most other mechanics and indeed I have seen most if not all of you come up with extremely creative ways of using the toolbox.  It is why I have stuck around so long.
 
My biggest struggle has been getting my players to play their powers rather than the mess of numbers on the character sheet.
 
I do not want them to think " Oh, he is desolid, I will use my affect desolid attack next time".
 
I want them to think "Nothing seems to affect him, I wonder if my intense plasma ray would do it".
 
I actually hate affect desolid, in my games no affect desolid will be allowed to blanket hit every SFX of desolid.  I make my players consider why their power affects a desolid character and what kind of SFX of desolid it might not work against.
 
Doc

Is this the exception that proves the rule??
 
To me, all the powers in the book are simply mechanics that have SFX wrapped round them.
 
Desolid as a mechanic means that the character takes no damage from attacks unless they are affect desolid, mental or of a reasonably common group.  It also allows a character to pass through solid objects. 
 
If you take that last bit away, it is pretty reminiscent of Superman.  Almost nothing hurts him unless it is mental or magic or kryptonite.
 
Doc

If villains start hurting your players, you may want to consider burning each and every character sheet - NPCs especially - posthaste. For everyone's sake, I hope you didn't give this malefactor ED versus fire.

SFX: Noxious odor?

I wasn't in this game, but one local group used the cry "Let's f*** 'em up!!!"  I think they called themselves The Brute Squad.

Don't get me started.  I am a big naval history buff.  Not the Who's and Political Why's, but the technology and tactics of naval vessels pre-aircraft. 
 
I have been so disappointed by so called RPG Ship supplements that I honestly think the people who made them should be sued out of existence for stupidity or at least fraud for using the term Ships.  Just reading them is painful.
 
It is an RPG, so I am not expecting realism, but at least spend 2 minutes on Wikipedia to make sure that the three ships in the product existed within 500 years of each other.   It would be like making a gladiatorial RPG supplement that that takes place in ancient Rome and features races in the coliseum.   Your PC's get to choose between a Chariot, a motorcycle and a Formula One race car.  And then have the writers say "What?  Those have all been used in racing!" as if that means that makes it all good for ancient Rome.
 
I was thoroughly disappointed in the bait and switch fraud RPG called 7th Sea.  I backed it and even though they talked up the seafaring part, the game was basically "urban political three musketeers" with lip-service for the Sea's part. A whooping 14 pages out of the 296 page rulebook for seafaring.  And then they go for "vague narrative" with the eight ship "types" being drawn, apparently randomly, from a span of 500 years of technological development.  Not to mention the remaining 13 pages give an equally vague cursory skim over of ships and crews.  All in all, the game has literally nothing to do with seafaring beyond what the GM can create.  Totally disappointing.
 
I can understand keeping things to just enough detail to use in play.  Too much information is worse than to little sometimes.  
 
But if you claim your book is about breeds of dogs and then you start discussing Hereford, Angus, and Brahmas (breeds of cattle) then I will say your book is garbage.  Not matter how correct you are in the details about cattle.    When I buy a book about dogs, I expect dogs.
 
If you are an RPG writer and want to put out a D&D book of ships, at least take five minutes on wiki to make sure you are actually using period ships and not the USS Enterprise .   Wikipedia is not my choice for real information, but apparently it is 100% more informed than 99% of gamers, at least for this subject.  
 
Hmmmmm..... well that touched a trigger....
 
Rant over

I'd never given that any consideration before myself, but hearing it out loud.....
 
I have to wonder the value of knowing when and where....
 
"Okay, guys!  We have to come back here Tuesdays and Thursdays, and bring your strainers!  I'm betting there are quite a few magic rings and amulets in there......"