A Few Changes to the Rules
| New Perks & Skills | Skills, Talents & Perks | Powers |
| Advantages | Limitations | Power Frameworks |
| Disadvantages |
Please keep in mind that the restrictions given here are not absolute. If your character concept requires a certain power that’s listed as forbidden, and you can do it in a way that does not cause whatever problem I was anticipating when I forbade it, then I’ll probably let you have it. Conversely, powers that are not forbidden but have the same problems as ones that are, will be vetoed.
For example, I do not want characters to have Aid, in part because instantaneous healing makes players careless around normals. It would be OK to buy 'Regeneration, Useable on Others' since this takes a long time and NPCs can still die dramaticly. It would not be OK to buy 'Transform: Injured person to Uninjured person' even though this is not specifically prohibited.
| New Perks | |
|---|---|
| PRIMUS Deputy 1 point |
You are an authorized PRIMUS deputy. You have taken classes in law enforcement and proper arrest procedure, have more access to PRIMUS information and facilities, and may train with PRIMUS agents. You have a text pager, a phone number to call in case of trouble (and PRIMUS is likely to listen to you), the police are a lot more likely to cooperate with you, and you may testify in court while in costume. On the down side, you have been Mind Scanned by at least three telepaths who will be able to find you in your Secret ID, should it become necessary. |
| New Skills | |
| Acrobatics | The ability to perform rolls, flips tumbles, etc. Contains Acrobatics and Breakfall. You can roll to avoid Knockback and falling damage, roll to not waste 1/2 phase standing up, and use it with an appropriate attack to gain +2 DCV. This is a DEX-based skill and costs 10 points, +1 per 2 points. |
| Coordinate | The ability to coordinate your attack with others. Coordinated attacks get the Multiple Attackers Bonus and add STUN together (after defenses) to determine if the target is Stunned. Knockback is either added together, or (if the attacks come from opposite directions) subtracted and the overlap converted to damage. You may only coordinate with people you've trained with, but you do not need to buy a separate skill for each person. This skill costs 1 point for an 8- roll, 2 points for an 11- roll, +1 per 1 point. |
| Disguise | The ability to look, act and sound like someone else. Contains Acting, Disguise, and Mimicry. This is an INT-based skill and costs 5 points, +1 per 2 points. |
| Investigation | The ability to get information. This is actually three related skills, purchased
separately. They cost 5 points, +1 per 2 points.
Detective Work: The ability to get information from a room, place or object. This includes aspects of Concealment, Criminology, Deduction, Forensics and Tracking. INT-based. Research: The ability to get information from libraries, archives, databases and other impersonal sources. This includes aspects of Bureaucratics, Cryptography and Computer Programming, as well as a lot of general knowledge and Internet access. INT-based. Streetwise: The ability to get information from people on the seamier side of life and the black market. This includes aspects of Bribery, Bureaucratics, Conversation, Intimidation and Pursuasion, as well a number of low-level contacts and informants. PRE-based. |
| Security Systems | The ability to detect and defeat alarms, locks and scanners. Contains Security Systems and Lockpicking. This is an INT-based skill and costs 5 points, +1 per 2 points. |
| Stealth | The ability to move silently, avoid attention and follow people without being noticed. Contains Stealth and Shadowing. This is a DEX-based skill and costs 5 points, +1 per 2 points. |
| Profession | This is a blanket skill that lets you make a roll on anything related to your profession. It includes the appropriate Professional, Knowledge and Science Skills. This costs 5 points for a 9+(CHAR/5) roll, +1 per 2 points. |
| Comic Book Science | This represents the vast array of knowledge that comic book scientists have. You pick a specialty (Battlesuits, Force Fields, High-Energy Physics, etc.) and you know everything related to that field. Outside your specialty you're at -3 to your roll. This skill contains Computer Programming, Deduction, Inventor, Systems Operation, and all related Science, Professional and Knowledge Skills. It includes aspects of Bugging, Concealment, Cryptography, Demolitions, Electronics, Mechanics, Security Systems, Weaponsmith, and all the Science Skills. The only levels that can be added to this skill are the 10-point kind. This is an INT-based skill and costs 20 points, +1 per 3 points. |
| Cost Changes | The following Talents cost 2 points each if they fit your concept: Absolute Time Sense, Ambidexterity, Bump of Direction, Double Jointed, Fast Draw, Lightning Calculator, Lightsleep, Perfect Pitch, Speed Reading. |
|---|---|
| Martial Arts | Only the Martial Artist archtype may
buy martial arts maneuvers - anyone else has generic martial
arts training.
Only the maneuvers listed in the basic book are allowed. Ideas and descriptions for exotic maneuvers can be taken from Ninja Hero or The Ultimate Martial Artist, but I'll be opposed to anything not in the basic book as the majority of them can be simulated with skill levels and minor linked powers. |
| Skill Enhancers | These must be bought at character creation. |
| Skill Levels | When you create your character, you may buy 2 skill levels of any type. More may
be purchased with experience.
You may have one Overall Level per 100 points in your character. This is also a good way to judge a villain's approximate power level: "He puts his 6 Overall Levels into OCV..." |
| Contacts & Favors |
These do not need to be defined at the start of the game. In the course of an
adventure when you need a contact in such-and-such department or profession, you can ask
if one of your undefined contacts can fit the bill. If I approve, the contact or favor is
defined from then on.
Contacts purchased during the game must be defined - you make friends with such-and-such person. |
| Followers, Vehicles, & Bases |
These may get a maximum of 60% of their total points from disadvantages; the same
ratio that characters have.
Unless your character can build his own super-vehicles you can't have them. Conversely, you don't have to pay any points for a modified normal vehicle (such as a motorcycle that can carry an 800-kg brick). |
| Combat Sense | Your combat sense will have some way that it can be negated; what it is will depend on your special effect. If your combat sense works by listening to the heartbeats or breathing of your opponents, then darkness to hearing will counteract it. If it is a psychic sense, then invisibility to mental group will block it. If it works by analyzing your opponents’ fighting style and predicting their next move, then someone with a very unorthodox fighting style will be immune. And so on... |
| Danger Sense | As with combat sense, danger sense can be negated in some way. This will not happen often, but it is possible. |
| Find Weakness | This will be quite rare and it must be within your concept, and even then taken only with attacks that are otherwise weak in comparison with other attacks (or is highly specialized: 'Only vs. rocks'). |
| Aid | Not allowed. |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | These are Special Powers, not Standard Powers. Any Characteristic bought with a technological (non-psychoscience) Focus must also take the 'Does Not Affect Figured Characteristics' limitation. |
| Clairsentience | Being able to see into the future or past is not allowed without a 'No Conscious Control' or similar limitation. Only being able to use clairsentience through another being's senses is a -1/2 limitation. |
| Damage Reduction | Not allowed. Exceptions might be made vs. specific special effects ('Only vs. heat and fire based attacks'), and then only when it is in line with the character’s conception. |
| Damage Resistance | May also be bought for Flash, Mental and Power Defense. Killing Ego Attacks and Penetrating Drains will be rare, but they will exist. |
| Density Increase | The PD and ED gained are fully resistant. |
| Desolidification | Requires GM permission. |
| Duplication | Not allowed. |
| Enhanced Senses | The Smell/Taste catagory includes touch. |
| Lack of Weakness | Not allowed. Be afraid of Find Weakness. |
| Mental Awareness | You need to have at least 30 points in mental powers to get this for free. |
| Extra-Dimensional Movement | If the target dimension is defined as "Earth," this acts as super-teleportation and allows the character to teleport thousands of miles without spending hundreds of points. Unless your character concept is a world-class teleporter, this power is not allowed. |
| FTL Travel | Not allowed. The campaign will be on Earth and there aren't any known aliens out there. |
| Growth | Every 5 points of Growth adds +1" of knockback that the character does when doing a Move Through. |
| Hand-to-Hand Attack | This has an Active cost of 5 points per die. A 4D6 HA still costs 12 points, but it takes up 20 points of a Multipower reserve. |
| Killing Attack | These may not be bought with any modifier that reduces BODY damage. They are the most cost-efficient attack in the game but you should be prepared to do BODY damage at the same time. |
| Mind Link | This allows verbal and limited emotional communication. If you want to be able to use someone else's senses you should buy Clairsentience. |
| Multiform | Not allowed. |
| Summon | Not allowed. |
| Transform | Requires GM permission. Transforms which can create anything useful will require an appropriate skill roll. For example, transforming something into a TV set would require an Electronics roll: if the roll failed, you’d end up with something that looked like a TV but did not actually work. Transforming your handwriting into someone else’s would require a Forgery roll, and so on. |
| Does BODY | Requires GM permission. |
|---|---|
| Indirect | Requires GM permission. |
| Invisible Power Effects | Mental powers may take a +1/4 advantage: Invisible to Target. Mental Awareness will inform you that there are mental powers in use, but not the type, target or source. |
| No Normal Defense | You may not have more than one NND attack. |
| No Range Penalty | Requires GM permission. |
| Reduced END | Any power that is not bought to 0 END requires a minimum of 1 END per phase. This covers using your flight to hover in place, for example. |
| Transdimensional | Not allowed. |
| Uncontrolled | Requires GM permission. |
| Usable Against Others | Requires GM permission. |
| Useably By Others | If you consistantly give an ability to your teammates (like Mindlink or enhanced senses), it will be easily damaged and become more and more unreliable until they pay the points for it. |
| Variable Advantage | Requires GM permission. |
| Activation | For a continuous power this must be rolled each phase to see if the power stays up. Exceptions are Uncontrolled powers, and powers that stay up on their own (Entangles). The effect of most mental powers will continue after an activation roll is blown in a later phase, although this will prevent the mentalist from feeding END into the power, giving the victim successive plusses on his/her EGO roll. |
|---|---|
| Concentrate | I am not quite as severe as the book as far as this Limitation goes. Concentrating will not make the character totally unaware of what is going on around him/her. The character can observe what’s going on, although to pay close attention to details will require Perception rolls at minuses and an EGO roll to keep your concentration. |
| Does no BODY | May not be applied to Killing Attacks. |
| Focus | A Focus need not be completely Personal or Universal; for example, a suit of powered armor might work for anyone who was roughly the same size and weight as the person it was designed for, but not for others. Be sure to read the discussion in the Champions book on what is and is not a Focus. And remember, if you take a Focus Limitation then there will be times when you will not have access to the power. |
| Gestures | Not allowed. |
| Incantation | Not allowed. |
| Independent | Not allowed. |
| Limited Power | Instead of listing all the different circumstances in which your power doesn’t
work, take a single limitation and base it's value on how frequently the power isn't available.
|
| Only in Hero ID | Requires GM permission. This is most applicable when the character has bought Instant Change and defined it as a significant physical change (transform into stone, putting on armor, etc.). You must spend a significant part of your day in the non-super ID, and there must be a reasonably uncommon way to keep you from transforming. |
| Psionic | This -1/2 limitation represents a power that only works against a sentient mind. For example, psionic Invisibility would still be visible to cameras and electronic sensors. |
| Reduced Penetration | Not allowed. |
| Requires a Skill Roll | Requires GM permission. |
| Side Effects | Requires GM permission. You can have a side effect on a power even if it does not require an Activation or Skill Roll. Just define a reasonably common condition under which the side effect would occur. For example, a magical spell might have side effects that activate if the caster were hit while casting (in the same segment). |
| Variable Limitation | Requires GM permission. The limitations chosen can never be situational things like 'Does not work on Tuesday,' when it just so happens that today is Thursday... |
You may buy one Elemental Control and one Multipower. If you're a gadgeteer you may buy a 22-point VPP.
| Elemental Control | An Elemental Control groups together several powers that are manifestations of a
single ability or physical form. The powers are separate in game terms but you should be able
to describe the ability in a single sentence: "The character has the ability to..." or "The
character is/has..." Overly vague descriptions like "The ability to cast magical spells,"
are not suitable. More specific things like "The ability to generate magical fire" or "The
ability to turn into a werewolf" are OK.
All Elemental Controls cost 20 points and may have up to five slots. That gives you 100 points for free and I won't give you more than that. ECs require GM approval and may require certain powers or disadvantages to be taken. Because the slots of an Elemental Control all represent different aspects of the same ability, an Adjustment Power which takes points away from one power in an EC will take the same number of points away from all other powers in the EC. Exceptions will be made according to special effect which reduce a power by creating circumstances that make it harder to use the power rather than actually removing the power. For example, Suppress vs. Flight defined as making the air more dense would reduce telekinetic flight but not a telekinetic force field. |
|---|---|
| Multipower | Like an EC, a Multipower represents different aspects of a single ability. This is
generally a broader catagory than an EC and may be defined by more general descriptions that
would be rejected for an EC. A Multipower might represent "the ability to cast magic spells"
or "gadgets I carry with me."
The total active cost of all slots in a Multipower may not exceed your base points (100) plus experience. That means a starting character may have two 50-point slots, ten 10-point slots or any combination of powers that total 100 active points. As a character gains experience, further slots may be purchased. Yes, the "+5 points for..." bonuses in character creation add to your base points for this calculation. Points in a Multipower reserve can only be used for one particular power per Phase. A character need not decide how to allocate all of the points at the beginning of the Phase, but once points are allocated they cannot be moved until the character’s next Phase. |
| Variable Power Pool | A power pool must have a well-defined special effect which explains how the powers
work. This will necessarily put some restrictions on the types of powers available, and do
not save the character any points unless they are particularly severe.
For example, a Gadget pool is limited by the level of technological know-how possessed by the user. A present-day scientist could not build a Teleport device since this is beyond the capability of modern technology. This restriction is not worth any points. However, the limitation that all gadgets built must be through obvious, accessable foci, and can only be built if the appropriate parts are available (in a lab), would be worth points. A character with a power pool should design a list of slots ahead of time. Start out with a dozen or so, and add more as the campaign progresses. Designing a new slot will usually take in-game time, research and role-playing. |
I will enforce the sentence, "A Disadvantage that isn't a Disadvantage isn't worth any points." If it doesn't restrict your actions, cause problems or otherwise annoy the hell out of you, it's not worth any points.
| Berserk | Not allowed, and Enraged is not recommended. |
|---|---|
| Dependence | Dependencies that intend to represent a need for a certain envirionment should be instead bought as a Susceptibility to being without the required substance for the appropriate time, and determine how commonly this would occur. |
| Hunted | These will be rolled for every game. Please don't take any greater than an 8- roll as I'd rather not have the game turn into, "Which Hunted shows up this week?" Keep in mind that any overly powerful hunter (such as VIPER or the FBI) would already have gotten you. |
| Normal Characteristic Maxima | This must be taken if you do not have the metagene or if you've taken the Mentalist archtype. |
| Psychological Limitation | You should take Psych Lims that are based on your character’s personality and will cause your character to behave in ways in which you as a player might rather not. Stay away from Psych Lims that are overly vague ("Tries to do good things"), or are things you’d want to do anyway ("Tries not to get himself killed"). Keep in mind that 20-point psych lim are major obsessions, override your everyday common sense and will be apparent to anyone you spend time with. 20-pointers and Secret IDs do not mix well. |
| Unluck | This will come into play in a lot of little ways, not just when things are going well. You'll suffer stalled cars, traffic jams, phone disconnections, false clues, mistaken identities, and random occurrences even if you only have one or two dice. More dice make your character truly deserving. See here for an example of unluck. |
| Cursed | This is like Unluck, but worse. It's a 50-point Disadvantage and works just like the GURPS disadvantage. If anything bad happens to the party, it happens to you, first and worst. If anything good happens, it misses you. And any time the GM feels like hosing you he can, and you have no complaint coming, because you are cursed. You also can't buy this off just by spending points - you have to determine what cursed you and deal with it, then spend the points. |
| Vulnerability | Take at least one at the x2 STUN or effect - I want everyone to have an "off"
button, villains included. If you don't, expect Autofire Find Weakness 17-.
Additional points are given depending on how obvious the Vulnerability is:
And no, you can't have Autofire Find Weakness. |
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