Doc Democracy

I think it is a bit different from the usual kind of question, what it wants to do, is provide the character with a but of added potential to do heroic actions, the character can intervene to protect innocents and, once every 12 seconds, the character can do that even if they do not have an action, or an abort, available. The reason I would have little issue with it is that it facilitates an heroic shtick. Even when it appears impossible the heroine finds a way to put herself between an innocent and danger. The rule is even easy for a GM to understand, "the player can, once a turn, use deflect to protect an innocent, even if they don't have a phase to abort to". Yes it is outside the normal use of the rules, but that is what makes it special. The big question for me is how much you charge for it. @Duke Bushido is right. Do it, use it on probation for a few sessions, then decide whether it works or not.

This is the way I would do it. I would not bring in the extras Lonewolf was mentioning (that she is now a SPD 12 character as far as ongoing powers are concerned) because I would't deliver ongoing benefits, like recovery or ground speed. The key question would be cost. You are proposing it would cost 10 points. So no advantage on regular SPD. But this way would vary. A SPD 3 character would have to pay 18 points. I suppose it makes sense to cost less for faster characters, there is less additional utility, but I don't think it should ever cost less than 12, because, the utility to use the action on ANY phase makes it better than just 1 regular SPD. The justification for floating the cost would be that your second limitation is probably worth less for higher SPD characters. Doc

What @LoneWolf said. 🙂

It is a bit of a false memory. You get a chunk more points to build for free. The could have said, you get 325 points to build a character and an extra point for every point of complication you take upto 400. Because the value caps wt 75 points. I reckon the way they present it means the rules emphasise that a 400 point character with 75 points of complicationsis normal. Pitching it the other way suggests that a 325 point character is normal but you can get more power by compromising your character. I think it addresses the issue that players far enough along the gamist path produced severely twisted characters to squeeze out increased points for their characters. It puts a RAW thing for GMs to say, it is normal for your PC's life to be complicated; it is normal for these things to come into gameplay; it is something to give good consideration to, if your character is going to be tied into this game. I actually think the GM should probably offer a 25 point campaign discount, complications that will be relevant to the ongoing campaign, to be revealed during play. A way of ensuring all the players are tied into the ongoing campaign as well as having complications of their own - and that will change, potentially by adventure arc. Doc

That is why both the GM and players need to be on the same page, and there needs to be trust between them. Sounds like Sketchpad's group are on that page, the players trust him to use the complications to tell a better story and not to screw them over. It might not work in my group, or yours, but there is no BadWrongFun here. If players see their character gets more love through having more complications, the player gets a fraction more spotlight, then there is no need for a point balancing exercise.

How did you know my wife had a corgi??

turns out we are both right but you are more right (I think). If you have AoE TK at 60STR, and want to scoop up sand, then the amount of sand is 100 tonnes, regardless of the area involved, not 100 tonnes per 1m radius etc. Quite explicit. If you are punching or grabbing, then "full telekinetic STR applies to each target". It feels a bit inconsistent, if the targets are all 100 tonnes, could you lift them all?

Are you saying that I am wrong? It wouldnt be the first time but I am sure it has been true (or accepted as such) in lots of other threads. I will see if I can find anything definitive. I do have something definitive that goes against the wishes of the OP though - if you have AoE STR or TK, then all targets must be affected in the same way, that is, all grabbed, all hit, all pushed etc.

Sounds to me that @Sketchpad is saying that taking the template complications drives story and the player gets a bit extra GM-love/spotlight time, which is decent recompense for the complications. If complications at a table are seenas story hooks rather than "disadvantages" then I can see it working.

I am all for folk runing things they way they want. 100% I can understand, if it is your game, you say, if you want to be a skrull infiltrator, you take the template, and the complications. No way round that. And that is fine. I am just trying to understand what the player gets from still having to take the standard point value of complications. My questions is probably, would you actively stop someone else, who bought all the same powers and did not take the complications (and did not say they were a skrull infiltrator) from playing that character?

The issue I see with that is GoodBoy looks at your templates and picks 2, takes the 45 points of complications, and then chooses another 75 points of complications. Looking over his shoulder GoodMan decides he wants all the abilities in the templates but not the complications and so he builds his character with no template and takes 75 points of complications. Goodman gets all the same abilities and only 60% of the complications of GoodBoy. Is it worth the complications to officially be a Skrull Infiltrator?

True, but @mattingly was talking about multiple uses of STR, so, if you want to stick to RAW, then this is an issue.

A template is simply a bundle presented as a bunch of skills/perks/powers/complications that this kind of person would usually have. There are no bonus points for taking a package, so really, if you do not want all the bits of a template then you can individually buy everything you want. I do not see having the option of taking additional complications to be an advantage 🙂 and I am sure most GMs would be fine with a character taking additional complications - the resistance would come from expecting a character with an additional 15 points of complications getting an additional 15 points of powers/skills etc over other player characters. Doc

When I was running an ongoing campaign, I tried to roll for Hunteds etc between sessions and then use the Hunters (villains and organisations) to replace the ones suggested by a bought adventure or the ones I planned to use for home brewed sessions. When I was properly prepared it actually showed the game value of the mechanics as dependents, vulnerabilities, hunteds etc came into play in less crowbarred fashions (like I did for years before I learned how to do things better). I do agree that fewer is better because, when I did it, with four or five heroes, there were a LOT of returning faces. It did mean that the hunted relationship evolved as it had to as adventures drove things to change (and sometimes be replaced as villains were imprisoned etc). Doc

The very reason I thought of Duplication. It gives additional actions, all of which are like you doing it.

Ah, was suggesting it would have been a good article in there, I don't think there ever was.... 😢

I think the big issue RAW about AoE STR and TK is that, if I recall properly, if you have 50STR then it is 50 STR over the whole area. That means, if there are 5 people in the area you can apply 10 STR per person, or a 2D6 punch. I was also going to suggest an invisible duplication...you suddenly have three or four of you for a very short time to do a variety of actions. Almost making duplication an instant power, invisible because the actions all take place in the "dead time".

I think how much detail you want will vary by genre. If I am in Champions, I reckon 99% of the time I dont want any difference in how grenades work. If I am playing a skirmish WWII game then I want the potential for throwing back grenades and, potentially, shooting grenadiers who drop their grenade among their fellows. Grenades in the second can be high risk, high gain weapons. Would have made a good article for Adventurer's Club....

We could do all that, but we are playing a game rather than simulating life. RAW there is no real chance of doing this. In the source material, the war comics and movies I watched, it happened often enough to be a thing. So, if we want it to be a thing, how do we make it possible. Too much detail and you lose interest and becomes tedious. Too much cost and noone ever attempts it. I was looking to offer a more limited attack, one that does not just have an effect. But to minimise the additional bureaucracy involved. And one that does not necessitate working out size and velocity modifiers (because I am very lazy...)

I would be more inclined to autofire than area of effect. The key point it is missing is that noone else will miss an action - the special effect would be that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING else in the world did nothing and noticed no disconnect except the results of the action. The other problem would be that hitting someone who was time-stopped should be much easier than in normal combat. As would grabbing and pushing people over. You might want to live with that because, in game, as GM I would want it to be harder to grab, punch and trip than to punch, punch, punch. As such I would add up all the penalties from the various manouevres and apply them all to all the attacks (as well as the usual penalties for autofiring multiple targets). Doc

I was not actually suggesting a special manouevre or anything, just a way of managing the thing in play. I have no problem with some grenades having this disadvantage while others do not, just like some grenades will be real weapons and others will not. 🙂 You could, of course, fold it into the real weapon limitation but then it comes back to how it looks in play. By making this a limitation of the attack, you get the rolls during the attack without impacting the actions of the target. Hugh's suggestion works too but it means that the chances of it happening rely purely on the OCV of the target with essentially no reflection on the skill of the grenadier being able to time the throw. @Hugh Neilson if a character wants to try and return the grenade, do you mean you would say, "yes, if you abort your next action you can try a grab and throw"?? If they fail the grab, does that mean they have aborted, simply to ensure they are at ground zero of the explosion, or would you then ignore the failed grab and see what the attack roll said?? I am also wondering if you have worked out what chance your everyman soldier might have to do this? I do agree with Hugh that anyone should be able to attempt it.

Been thinking about this. I reckon the attack needs to take a limitation of returnable attack. Almost like Extra time. If someone fires a returnable attack, then the defender decides on their response, dive for cover, brace for impact, try to return it. If you try to return it, that attacker then rolls their PRE (-1 per 10 active points), every point they make the PRE roll by is a penalty to the defender's DEX roll. The idea behind the PRE roll is keeping a cool head to run down the timer, modified by how dangerous it is to hold onto it. If the modified DEX roll is successful, the attack is returned. If not, the grenade goes off at zero range.

What if a character death gave a minor boost to everyone else? That kind of pushes toward the noble sacrifice...

Hmm. I think you might want to think about having an accidental change. So, you might have the potential for losing control, where an evil entity essentially drives you. So you have control of your body and mind and the use of these powers but there are times when you are either unaware of your actions or a helpless oberver. The accidental change maintains the same powerset but switches the controlling personality. It is very rare to begin with, possibly 3 or less when triggered but, over time, becomes more and more common. The trigger for the accidental change becoming greater and greater and the chance to change back less and less. Until eventually the trigger is 18 or less and the recover is 3 or less, possibly only becoming aware long enough to despair at what you have become. It would need a good player and a detailed idea of what the subversive personality would be, potential drives and objectives... Doc

I would allow it, I would even allow flicking desolid on and off as the SFX of a block, or dodge. I would not allow you to switch it off, attack, then switch it on.