pawsplay

Feel free to add, comment, discuss and criticize. A Spell With Multiple Functions Simply put, some spells make sense as Multipowers, perhaps with Unified Power. This is a good concept for Three Secret Symbols of Power, or maybe a spell for controlling large amounts of water. This can work even in magic systems where Multipowers aren't generally used. Magic Systems Were Powers Are Fairly Unified and Simple Basically, if your spells are really more like psychic powers, it might make sense to put most spells in a multipower. If wizards basically just levitate stuff and read minds, and maybe have one or two unique abilities, and their abilities all require END and some level of mental focus to maintain, this makes sense. Magic Systems Were Mages Are Extremely Versatile But Not Necessarily Sages The earliest I know where this came up in print is a suggested conversion of the classic GURPS Magic system. And it works exactly like it does on the can. Magic is expensive up front to learn your main spells, but you can add other spells for a few points. Few spells are specialized or esoteric. Limitations tend to be unified more than not. There aren't a lot of thematic limits under this scheme but the GM should establish what does and doesn't belong in the Big Multipower. Without extensive research or learning requirements, spells are easy to learn. Loosely Thematic Action-Adventure Games If your game is on the cusp of Superheroic, maybe you can stick any old thing in a Multipower. Even journeyman mages have a breadth comparable to Doctor Strange or Zatanna. The main challenges are the GM needs to set some limits on what spells are and aren't acceptable, in principle, and non-wizards need some attractive options as well if they aren't going to be sidelined. Otherwise everyone will just a a wizard.

"How and why did you learn that spell?" is equivalent to "How and why do you have a laser pistol?" No, you cannot just spend an experience point and learn any old spell. When your character was created, all their spells have a stated or implied origin in your character's magical training. That doesn't disappear just because you have an experience point. Further, if spells are supposed to be something that are hard to learn, you aren't necessarily entitled to spend those points willy-nilly. Learning a new spell every other month might be unreasonable. Just because you have points to spend on a Follower doesn't mean you can suddenly acquire a squire while traveling through the desert. You might be able to, but you have to justify it.

Are you suggesting spell selection isn't the purview of the GM during character creation?

I think we would solve a lot of problems simply by licensing firearms. There is nothing in the Second Amendment that would prevent the US government to simply require a basic license and background check, and taking away the gun-owning privileges of people who use them for illegal acts.

So what I hear is, I can play a character who has a laser pistol.

It isn't any different. The point of the random gadget multipower is to be enabling. The point of not allowing a multipower for spells is not to be enabling. Gadget multipowers make sense if you want characters to have a bag of gadgets they can use one at a time. Multipower spells make sense if you want to have characters able to use a variety of spells, one at a time. There are several main issues with spell Multipowers, even before you get into thematics. First, a battle with a mage on each side can quickly turn into Calvinball. That is, they start spitballing increasingly bizarre spell constructs at each other until someone rolls poorly or someone hits about the situationally useful spell construct. Second, spells can be had cheap. While that is not inherently gamebreaking, it's annoying. A character built around such shenanigans can trivialize a greater number of obstacles and can step on more toes. Third, character complexity shoots through the roof. A twenty-slot Multipower is not a joy in play. Fourth, every single slot needs to be vetted as its own power. I'm not going to belabor thematics. I don't like magic to be too "easy" in the first place. Putting a bunch of easy spells into a framework that makes things easy is not something I find appealing. I don't want to run a game where a character goes, oh, I switch to this slot and cast this spell. Then I switch and cast this spell. With every spell being basically a weapon, a can opener, or a frustrating defense. Even comic book mages like Doctor Strange don't work this way. He has dozens of commonly used spells, but similar spells have similar limitations. Some of his magic requires his Orb. Some of it is personal magic, some of it is dimensional. As far as thematics, the Multipower system leaves very little room for ritual magic. I'm not saying the Multipower-of-whatever-spells system is wrong, I just think it has significant gameplay and thematic drawbacks. If you are going to allow a bunch of versatile super-mages as PCs, I think that does raise some questions about what else do you allow. Why shouldn't the fighter have a magical Multipower as well? What if someone wants to play a frost giant? Can the deceptive rogue have PRE 30? If you want to run a game where the PCs are fairly unlimited characters who can steamroller over a bunch of challenges before eventually succumbing to their inherent weaknesses, you certainly can. In general, a Multipower that is unlimited in scope is just less magical, and hence less desirable to me.

You say "throwing obstacles in the way of players spending the XP they earned" as if that is not one of the central pillars of the Hero System.

Google "does flour explode when it burns."

Yet you are allowed to have a computer, a 3D printer, a sack of flour, and at least at present, an encrypted Internet connection, any one of which is capable of creating far more deaths than a a personal firearm. I think it lacks perspective to suggest one nut with a gun presents a real danger to society. What is dangerous are evil people in numbers. If someone wants to produce math deaths, a semi-automatic rifle is a paltry machine. But three hundred people with rifles, or with piles of bricks, can bring down an entire community. I am far more worried about a repeat of the Tulsa Race Riots, in which the weapon of choice was simply starting fires. An entire thriving black community was eradicated in a day. I think it is actually sufficient justification to own an item that you find it interesting and potentially useful, even weapons. You lose that right when you turn that item for criminal ends. I'm not suggesting you be allowed to own a nuke, or that a .50 Browning should be fired inside the city limits. But if someone wants to take a machine gun and shoot up pumpkins and post the results on Youtube? I think there should be some provision for that be legal. I can't launch a hot air balloon from my front yard. But people can and do make a hobby out of launching hot air balloons, in the proper time and place, with the proper permits.

I was just paging through this, and made me think about Luke Cage. He's a superhero, but a lot of his enemies are just really skilled assassins. But he also went up against guys in power armor and a few other superhumans.

"I am but a humble seller of wares." "Why are you holding a wand with a skull on it?" "Uh, family heirloom?" "Is it for sale?" "NO TOUCHIE." Also your 1 point Telepathy isn't going to do a lot without Mind Scan. I don't think you've proven Multipower is broken or abusive. It has tradeoffs. It's appropriate for some systems of magic, and inappropriate for others. It has a limited role in some systems of magic, and a common role in others. I wouldn't allow the Desolidification in the same multipower as mind control unless the campaign style was "kind of comic book style wizardry, with no discernible schools or magical traditions, and also all bets are off with the custom katana talents." Like in what conception does someone shift their powers between being desolid and reading minds? Saying "it's astral form" doesn't really cut it when that isn't like any astral form I've seen. Even in D&D that would be ethereal form, not astral form, and it has nothing to do with mind control.

Skilled or competent normals are fine for ordinary thugs, or weird weapon wielders. Beyond that you are probably looking at some supplementary material, although, as noted above, some of those materials are cheap.

So I guess he walks around with Desolidification as his active slot and his OAF in hand? I guess that's okay, providing no other opponents act after his attacks. It seems like the very first thing that's going to happen in is someone is going to take out his OAF. So if this is supposed to be abusive, I guess so be it, but there are some notable weak points here. As a GM, the thing that strikes me is that most of his spells don't have enough Limitations. Honestly, a vanilla Desolidification with a skill roll is kind of iffy to me, although I concede it's a valid construct in some magic. But this pretty much exemplifies what not to do with a Multipower. The slots don't have a lot of thematic relationships, and the powers individually are questionable as spells. I mean, some of them are questionable as powers, but that's a whole other issue. Even for a Champions game I would be giving a Multipower like this the dirty eyeball. Like that RKA, what is that? And is the ray of paralysis really a valid construct? If it's literally shooting at people, I don't buy OMCV against DCV. And although his OCMV is pretty high, I think Martial Dodge and the like is going to make it hard to hand some hits. And is this really a character fresh out of academic? Because he seems like a duelist, or a killer magical robot. He doesn't seem to have any other useful skills, and he's a blank slate as far as Complications and such go. All of his powers seemed focused around highly efficient power constructs. Can he light a dark room? Levitate an object? Sadly, no, but he can walk through walls of any DEF, mind control people, and shoot people. I think you could take those same 45+ points and attach it to an archer who will shoot first and kill this guy. So while I don't like this build, it's not particularly worse than other bad ways to spend those points.

The Star Was re-imagining is cool. One pet peeve of mine: why do Jedi do that weird backhand parry thing? It looks so weak. A fencer would have their forearm cocked a little.

Increasing the cost is really just another way of decreasing the amount. If I'm running high fantasy, I don't necessarily want to say no. Like Conan probably has STR 25. which is fine, but I don't necessarily wanting everyone to have STR 25. Costs affect behaviors, it's as simple as that. Maxima says, I want people to be more or less "normal" people but with skills, talents, and spells. But if someone wants to push that, they certainly can. It's also training wheels from systems where characters are built from the ground up, rather than the top down. It's a lot more clear to just set the Maxima in place than say, "Uh, why do you have STR 30?" "What, it's 20 points? Nothing here says not to spend 20 points on Strength."

"What you can do with 60 points in a Multipower" needs to be compared to what else you could do with those points. You could spend 60 points on optimizing Martial Grab. You could spend all your points on ECDV and stabbing people with a stiletto. You could own a fortress. Oh, wait, you're setting reasonable limits on the Martial Grabber? Well, then there are limits on magic spells, too. Honestly, the last magic system I wrote was based on the observation most fictional wizards had just a few "spells" they used regularly. Like, does Jafar do anything but disguises, hypnotism, and turning into a snake? And I was aiming for a swords-and-sorcery feel, albeit with fairly powerful PC wizards. So I required very heavy Limitations, and every spell had to be custom built and approved. But I did use Multipowers. Three Symbols of Binding. Apprentice's Prestidigitation. Basically, multifunction spells. But going the other way, if you are running something like Robert Asprin's Myth stories, or the Circle of Magic, and things like that, Multipowers make a lot of sense. You don't have magical earthquakes and mental paralysis and turning into an air elemental all in the same Multipower. Powers are more personal, ephemeral, tightly themed, and consistent across characters. Characters are a little bit more like supers, but also like sci-fi psychics. And also like characters in high adventure series like the D&D cartoon or Fairy Tale or the movie Willow.

It's definitely story-focused in sense of "story" being an emergent aspect of play that happens in role-playing games.

I think the main Fear effect would be +Xd6 Presence, constrained (only to inflict fear). Beyond that, Mind Control, constrained (fear effects) so you can make characters "cower" or "flee."

I'm not sure it has a narrativist bent. Ron seems to have gone all-in on the "let the dice fall where they may" aesthetic for this one.

Not when you have surprise.

You only pay END for Strength (or other effects) once per Phase.

Sigh. Fantasy Hero Complete is starting to feel anything but.

Why not?

I haven't messed with Fantasy Hero since 4e, getting back into the swing of things. So, reading through Fantasy Hero Complete, equipment for characters really isn't touched on. Sure, you can build almost piece of equipment you can imagine. Two things jump out at me, though. First, in-game currencies and wealth aren't touched on at all. While this varies widely between worlds, it seems like one thing a new GM would need is some idea how to price things. At least, it seems like some guidance should exist on starting equipment. Second, there really aren't a lot of ready-to-roll items, particularly armor. Armor in Fantasy Hero Complete consists of a single table with little explanation, and is costed without any hit locations. Fantasy Hero seems a lot less "ready to play" right out of the box than Champions. Are there sources that offer more guidance on this?

Basically to stop players from building a character with STR 35 that lifts cows or SPD 6 / lots of running that can do a two minute mile.