Posted 6th October 2008 at 06:42 PM byarscott Updated 7th October 2008 at 03:41 AM byarscott
I know I promised some fluff this time around--and that's still on it's way. But I can't let a whole month go by without posting, so here are the rest of the origins from Great Responsibility.
You've already seen the Survivor. Now let me present the Gadgeteer (suitable for tech-based heroes like Iron Man or Cyborg), the Heir (suitable for those with inborn powers, such as Wonder Woman or the X-men), and the Magician (suitable for those who are trained in the mystic arts, such as Dr. Strange or Zatanna).
Gadgeteer:
Spoiler:
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity; +2 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Size: Medium Speed: 6 squares Vision: Normal
Skill Bonuses: +2 Science, +2 Wealth Bonus At-Will Power: You know one extra 1st level at-will attack power from your class Gadget Modification: During an extended rest, if you've achieved at least two milestones since your previous extended rest, you may retrain as though you had gained a level.
Heir:
Spoiler:
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity; +2 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Size: Medium Speed: 6 squares Vision: Normal
Skill Bonuses:+2 Intimidate, +2 History OR Streetwise Power Focus: Select a keyword from the following list: Acid, Charm, Cold, Conjuration, Fear, Fire, Force, Illusion, Lightning, Necrotic, Phasing, Poison, Polymorph, Psychic, Radiant, Sleep, Superspeed, Teleportation, Thunder, or Weapon. Gain a +1 racial bonus to attacks with the chosen keyword. Birthright: Select a power from the following list <snip>
Example Birthright Powers:
Quote:
Waterborn Heir Racial Power You are a child of the seas, and can live beneath the waves. Encounter
Move Action Personal
Effect: Swim a number of squares equal to your speed. Special: A character with this power can breathe underwater.
Quote:
Strange Metabolism Heir Racial Power You're not quite human, which makes you resistant to certain attacks. Encounter
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Trigger: You make a save against a power with the Cold, Necrotic, or Poison keywords. Effect: You gain a +5 racial bonus on the save
Magician:
Spoiler:
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity; +2 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Size: Medium Speed: 6 squares Vision: Normal
Skill Bonuses:+2 Arcana, +2 Diplomacy Bonus Feat: You gain a bonus feat at 1st level. You must meet the feat's prerequisites. Strong Will: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your Will defense. Power Words: Twice per encounter, you can invoke mystical energy by speaking a word of power. You begin knowing three such words, and can learn more by taking feats. No matter how many Power words you know, you can never use more than two per encounter, nor can you use each word more than once per encounter. Ritual Casting: You gain the Ritual Caster feat as a bonus feat, allowing you to use magical rituals. Ritual Book: You possess a ritual book, and it contains one 1st-level ritual of your choice.
Example Power Words:
Quote:
Power Word: Blight Magician Racial Power You speak a vile and blasphemous word that saps the life essence of all creatures nearby. Encounter•Necrotic
Minor Action Close Burst 2 Target: Each creature in burst Attack: Wisdom + 2 vs. Fortitude Hit: 1d6 + Constitution modifier necrotic damage.
Quote:
Power Word: Radiance Magician Racial Power You speak a word and a mystical glyph appears above your head shedding a pure light that drives back the forces of darkness. Encounter•Radiant, Zone
Minor Action Close Burst 2 Target: Each creature in burst that is vulnerable to radiant damage Attack: Wisdom + 2 vs. Will Hit: The creature takes damage as if its vulnerablility had been triggered Effect: The power's area is a zone that remains brightly light for the remainder of the encounter. You can move the zone 3 squares as a minor action.
Quote:
Power Word: Wizard's Tongue Magician Racial Power Your eyes blaze fire and your speech booms with thunder, and all who hear you pay heed to your words. Encounter
Free Action Personal
Effect: Until the end of the encounter your voice is magically increased in volume and your appearance is magically enhanced. Your voice becomes audible up to a mile away, and your face becomes plainly visible up to the same distance, if line of sight exists. You can choose do reduce this range if you so desire. While you are speaking, all mundane noise is completely drowned out-though this does not effect thunder or speech-dependent powers in any way. You also gain a +2 racial bonus to intimidate checks.
What would a superhero game be without superpowers? Not much--when it comes to superpowers, the more the merrier.
But how do you divide the numerous powers among the four roles? If each character could pick the same power regardless of role, then combat roles become meaningless and combat becomes less interesting and less about teamwork. On the other hand, it would be foolish to limit the fire powers to strikers, the ice powers to controllers, and so forth.
So here's the solution that Great Responsibility uses: characters can pick any power regardless of class. But just as being an inspiring warlord might make certain warlord powers more effective, Belonging to a certain role might make certain superpowers more effective.
For example, spider man can snare his opponents in a web. This isn't hugely different from Wonder Woman snaring her opponents with her magic lasso, but their very different fighting styles can highlight the difference between the two moves:
Quote:
Snare Superhero Attack 1 You ensnare your opponent with a thrown rope or net. At-Will • Super
Standard Action Ranged 5 Target: One Creature Attack: Dexterity vs. AC Hit: Target is immobilized Controller: Range becomes Area burst 1 within 5, and target becomes each creature in burst Defender: You pull the target a number of squares equal to your strength modifier Striker: You deal damage to the target equal to your dexterity modifier
A controller using a snare would attempt to take out multiple opponents, as befits his role. A defender, on the other hand, uses the power to draw opponents closer into melee. Spider man, though, is a striker, so he tries to pack some extra wallop into his webs. Dex damage may not sound like much, but remember: it gives strikers like him an opportunity to make use of their added damage powers (in this case, sneak attack)
Quote:
Evasive Blow Superhero Attack 1 You hit your opponent quickly, leaving you time to retreat before he gains his bearings. At-Will • Super
Standard Action Melee weapon Target: One Creature Attack: Make a basic melee attack against the target Hit: In addition to dealing normal damage, you may shift one square Leader: On a hit, an ally adjacent to both you and your target may also shift one square. Striker: On a miss, you may still shift one square (though you do no damage)
This is why dextrous blow is important. Because the powers are designed to be used by a wide variety of superheroes, many simply allow the character to make a basic melee attack rather than dictating specific attack and damage values. It's pretty important, therefore, to make sure that your basic attack is in good shape
Quote:
Witty Banter Superhero Attack 1 Your Cunning Repartee enrages your opponent, causing him to abandon all semblance of tactics Encounter • Super, Charm
Standard Action Ranged 5 Target: One Creature Attack: Charisma vs. Will Hit: Target cannot make attacks, except for basic attacks Defender: Target takes a -2 penalty to attacks until the end of your next turn Leader: Target is marked until the end of your next turn Striker: Slide the target 2 squares
As you can see, there's a little bit of Multiple Ability Dependency going on here, even with the basic attack thing. And this is both unavoidable and intentional. Unavoidable because it's and obvious result of picking powers from a unified list, and intentional because it's being accounted for by beefing characters up in other ways (the +2 to two stats chosen by the player makes the character much more effective from an ability score standpoint, and through such tweaks as improving the basic attacks for most characters). Still, you're unlikely to need high scores in all abilities, unless your power selection is very eclectic.
Quote:
Exploit Weakness Superhero Attack 1 Your knowledge of your opponent allows you to hit him where it hurts the most Daily • Super
Standard Action Melee Weapon Target: One Creature Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex Hit: 3 [W] damage Leader: Allies gain a +2 power bonus to attack rolls against the target until the end of the encounter Striker: The target grants you and allies combat advantage (Save Ends)
Well, that's it for Spidey (at least for now). I'd like to give a shoutout to my one and only fan, Mustrum Ridcully--Thanks for reminding me that at least one person cared about my crazy rpg ideas.
Tune in next time when I'll describe the Zeitgeist of my superhero setting, and why I chose the name Great Responsibility.
Posted 25th July 2008 at 04:30 AM byarscott Updated 6th September 2008 at 04:22 PM byarscott
As far as combat-role goes, it's clear that spider-man is a Striker: He tends to work alone, so Leader's a poor fit, and he avoids being close to the enemy, so Defender's right out.
A case could be made for Controller, given his tendency to hit multiple mooks with his web, but he tends to deal with stronger enemies one-at-a-time, moves around quite a bit, and is willing to go into melee when necessary. So a Striker seems the best match, perhaps with a secondary emphasis on control powers.
So, now that we've established his role, we've also established his class--Because in Great Responsibility, each of the four roles is a single (broad) class. So let's see what the Striker class entails:
Quote:
Armor Proficiency: Cloth, Leather Armor bonus: +2 AC
Most classes get armor bonus to AC, that won't stack with the armor they wear. This means that spider-man has the AC he needs to be effective while wearing nothing but spandex.
Quote:
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee Bonus to Defense: +2 Reflex
No huge surprises here--it means that spidey can pick up a dagger and use it if he wanted to, but as we'll see later, he's got better options.
Quote:
Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score Hit Points per Level Gained: 5 Healing Surges per Day: 6 + Constitution modifier
This matches what the ranger, rogue, and warlock get in the PHB.
Quote:
Trained Skills: Intelligence Score / 3 skills.
This entry is the same for every Great Responsibility class. Because there aren't specific "skill monkey" classes, skills are now determined by a character's intelligence. Peter Parker's a pretty bright kid (Int 16), so he'll have five skills (six, counting the bonus skill from his origin).
Quote:
Class Features: Attack Mode, Attack Specialization, Damage Bonus, Defensive Perk
Each of these class features is actually a menu of different choices. As discussed in my previous post, there's a lot more flexibility within each class and origin than there is in core D&D.
Attack Mode: This one boils down to "how does this character attack things?". It provides additional weapon proficiencies, basic-attack energy blast powers along the lines of eldritch blast, and more. Spider-man's generic mode of attack is pretty simple, actually--He hits stuff with his fists. So his attack mode (shamelessly stolen from the D&D website monk conversion) goes like this:
Quote:
Unarmed Adept: Increase unarmed damage to 1d8, and gain a +3 proficiency bonus to unarmed attacks.
Attack Specialization: This is a relatively minor perk that better defines exactly how a hero fights. Prime Shot is among the options, as is the ranger's Two Bladed Weapon style. Spider-man's specialization defines him as a finesse unarmed combatant:
Quote:
Dexterous Blow: Use Dexterity instead of strength when determining attack bonus and damage with an unarmed basic attack.
Damage Bonus: This is the big, Striker-defining power. Sneak Attack and Hunter's Quarry both fit here, as does a rage-like power. Spider-man's sticking with the classics, though. He takes Sneak Attack.
Defensive Perk: And finally, something to make strikers a bit harder to hit. Shield Proficiency, Better armor proficiencies/class armor bonuses, Extra HP, and more. In Spidey's case, it's about being able to move without getting hit:
Quote:
Careful Dodge: +3 AC vs. attacks of opportunity.
Well, that's it for class features. Stay tuned for Powers, the most important (and most innovative) part of the game.
One of my goals in Great Responsibility is to stay as close to the core 4e rules as possible. That means, among other things, that the PCs will have a race.
The problem is, race isn't especially appropriate for a Superhero RPG. Sure, superman isn't human, but the cool things he gets from being Kryptonian are better reflected through class powers than through his racial choice.
So I'm taking a page from city of heroes and using Origins.
Origins are the reason your character gained his abilities. Maybe he's an alien from another planet. Maybe he was bombarded by gamma rays. Maybe he has no superhuman abilities, but relies on his combat training and technical expertise.
The circumstances that caused your character to gain his powers also provide some other benefits--and these benefits are reflected in your chosen origin.
So, now let's get specific. As an example, we'll build a 1st-level version of Spider-man:
Peter Parker gained his powers when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. That makes him a perfect candidate for the Survivor origin. Survivors are those who experience some catastrophe, but rather than being injured or killed, are granted superpowers.
Lets see what the Survivor origin Grants:
Quote:
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity; +2 Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma Size: Medium Speed: 6 squares Vision: Normal
These traits are shared by every origin. While all dwarves are sturdy but slow-moving, and all halflings are small and agile, superheroes can't be painted with a similar brush--therefore these basic traits are as generic as possible.
Peter Parker gained the proportional Strength and Agility of a spider. I'm going to emphasize the agility here, and give him a +2 dex. Peter's powers also made him a lot more confident and sure of himself, so let's go with +2 cha for the mental stat.
Quote:
Bonus Skill: You gain training in one additional skill.
Survivors are a pretty diverse lot even for superheroes, so they gain an extra skill of their choice. Let's give Peter training in Science (Int).
Quote:
Survivor's Fortitude: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your Fortitude defense. Resistance: Choose a Damage type (Acid, Cold, Fire, Force, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Psychic, Radiant, or Thunder). You have resistance to that damage type equal to 5 + one-half your level.
Survivors are usually pretty resistant to whatever sort of disaster they experienced before. Let's give Peter resist poision--That'll fits in with both the spider bite and the radiation.
Quote:
Origin Power: Choose a power from the following list: <snip>
This is something you're going to see over and over again in Great Responsibility. Because the Races/Origins and the Classes are much more generic, there's going to be more choices and variations within each Origin and Class. The power list for the Survivor will focus on damage avoidance, durability, and luck. In Peter's case, we'll pick avoid danger (a cheezily retitled version of the halfling racial power), to represent his spider sense.
Quote:
Avoid Danger Survivor Racial Power You dodge your enemy's attack with your superhuman reflexes. Encounter
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Effect: When an attack hits you, force an enemy to roll the attack again. The enemy uses the second roll, even if it's lower.
You'll notice that this power is listed as a "racial power", and that Survivor's Fortitude gave a racial bonus. While origins aren't races in the story sense, they need to be races in the mechanical sense.
The goal is to deviate from 4e D&D as little as possible. And that means using existing names and structures. No 'origin bonus' when 'racial bonus' works just fine.
That's it as far as Spidey's Origin is concerned. Next up: Class Features.
Ever since I read the new PHB, I've felt that the 4e rules lent themselves well to a superheroes game.
Like it or not, 4e is a game where characters can do a bunch of cool things, and superheroes is a Genre where characters do a bunch of cool things.
The new combat rules provide a simple-but-sturdy base that can be built on with exception-based powers. Combat roles make it easy to define how a superheroic character fights even without the benefit of classes.
And the unified and silo-ed power progression means that you can easily choose the cool things you want your character to do without getting bogged down in a complicated point buy system.
So I've been spending the past month figuring out the best way to express superhero characters within the framework of the 4e rules, and I think I've developed a pretty neat system.
In my next series of posts, I'll explain how that system works by re-creating a certain friendly neighborhood wall-crawler.
All three warlock PP's are strongly focused on a single pact. And many of the warlock's powers become pretty sub-par when you pick them "cross-pact". So here's a Paragon Path for a warlock that likes to mix-and match.
Comments are appreciated.
Spoiler:
Pact Master "He who bargains with only one spirit is a fool. Far greater power comes when they compete for your attention."
Prerequisite: Warlock Class
You've learned to forge pacts with many diverse entities and forces. Your foes must now contend with the full breadth of Warlock Magics.
Pact Master Class Features Pact Master's Action (11th Level): When you spend an action point to use a warlock power, you gain the pact specific bonuses of that power regardless of your chosen pact. Pact Master's Boon (11th Level): Pick a second eldritch pact. You gain that pact's boon, though you may only invoke one pact boon at any given time. You may also choose to replace your pact-specific at will power with the at-will power of your second pact. Superior Bargain (16th Level): If your constitution score is lower than your charisma score, gain a +1 bonus on all constitution based attack rolls. If your charisma score is lower than your constitution score, gain a +1 bonus on all charisma based attack rolls.
Pact Master Spells Multiplied Boon Pact Master Attack 11 You siphon vitality from your target, sharing it with multiple patrons. Encounter•Arcane, Healing, Necrotic, Teleportation
Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One Creature Attack: Intelligence +2 vs. Fortitude Hit: 2d8 + Intelligence modifier necrotic damage. You gain temporary hit points equal to 10 + your constitution modifier, gain a power bonus on your next attack roll equal to your intelligence modifier, and may teleport a number of squares equal to your charisma modifier.
Intertwined Pact Pact Master Utility 12 You glean extra power through a series of carefully structured pacts involving multiple patrons. Daily•Arcane
Immidiate Reaction Personal
Trigger: A creature affected by your Warlock's Curse drops to 0 hit points or fewer Effect: Insead of gaining the benefits of one of your pact boons, you regain a spent encounter power.
Relentless Hex Pact Master Daily 20 You bring the full force of your varied magics to bear against a single target. Daily•Arcane, Charm, Cold, Fire, Psychic
Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One Creature. Attack: Constitution vs. Fortitude Hit: 2d6 + Constitution modifier fire damage, and ongoing 10 fire damage. Effect: Make a Secondary attack againt the same target. Secondary Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex Hit: 2d6 + Intelligence cold damage, and target takes a -5 penalty to all defenses (save ends) Effect: Make a Tertiary attack against the same target. Tertiary Attack: Charisma vs. Will Hit: 2d6 + Charisma psychic damage, and target is dominated (save ends).
Okay, all of the entries from the previous post have now been transferred to a wiki page.
The formatting might have changed a little bit because of the Wiki. If your blog didn't have a title, I gave it one, and if the link was in the title, it's moved into the body of the text.
Also, I lack the wiki-fu necessary to include smilies, so a few people's perenthetical comments are now missing a smiley-face.
If you're a blogger, and haven't added your blog to the list, now's your perfect chance.
More cards from the deck of many things. Previous post in the series is here.
The Knight
This card invokes loyalty, whether to a person or a cause. It might refer to the devoted, or to that which inspires such devotion. Reversed:
Reversed, the card represents obligation or unwelcome duty. Service given without love or gained through compulsion. Debt slavery, conscription, and quests of familial atonement.
The Idiot This card signifies the well-educated fool, a man too busy with minute facts to properly employ his reason.
Reversed:
Ignorance is not bliss. The reversed Idiot card symbolizes the sheer joy of intellectual persuits. The knowledge may be useless, but the happines it brings is anything but.
Verdande wrote a post about using Tarot cards at the game table. Since my 4e game features a prominent astrologer (which I'll talk about more in my longest road entries), I decided to adopt his advice.
But instead of using Tarot cards, I'm using the Deck of Many Things. One of the goals in my game is to adhere fairly closely to the D&D fluff, and using the D&D version of Tarot seems to line up well with that.
But unlike Tarot, the deck of many things doesn't have any tradition of divinatory meaning, a deficit I've decided to correct.
(Note: most traditions of tarot card reading ascribe different meanings to cards that are dealt upside-down in a pattern, often the opposite meaning of a right-side-up card. So I'll be providing meanings for reversed cards as well.)
Euryale
Euryale was cursed by the gods for her vanity, tranformed into a hideous monster. The Euryale card signifies ill fortune brought on by pride, hubris, or ambition. Reversed:
Eurayle's curse brought misfortune on those around her. Her card reversed represents ill fortune brought apon one person by the misdeeds of another.
The Skull
The skull signifies a right of passage, a challenge that must be faced and that will forever bear it's mark upon the one so challenged. Reversed:
The skull reversed represents stagnation. It indicates a failure to adapt to new circumstances or an inability to rise to a challenge--A failure that may result in permanent loss or death.
The Vizier
The vizier sits at the side of the king or queen, dispensing his words of wisdom. This card represents aid offered by the learned and the wisdom of experience.
Reversed:
Though the vizier advises the monarch, a selfish vizier's advice may not be in the monarch's best interest. Reversed, this card represents the abuse of power and advice that benifits the advisor more than the advised.
Posted 27th June 2008 at 05:19 PM byarscott Updated 30th June 2008 at 02:37 PM byarscott
As an overworked DM with over-splatbooked and rules-knowledgeable players, I was intrigued when I heard about the new edition of dungeons and dragons. I was promised easier preparation. More balanced math. A rules database that meant I didn’t have to track down a copy of Complete Broken just to make sure my players weren’t pulling a fast-one on me.
But it was the fluff that made me fall in love: A war between gods and primordial beings at the dawn of creation. Eladrin lords who make their home in the feywild. Ancient pacts between a corrupt empire and traitorous immortals.
Points of light in a big, dark world.
“This”, I said to myself, “is cool. I’m going to use this.”
So I started with the points of light. What did that mean? In discussion on ENWorld and elsewhere, it became clear to me that points of light were not--and could not be--stable. In one such discussion, I said “A candle is a point of light in the darkness, but that doesn’t mean it can survive a stiff wind”. There were wolves in the woods. The darkness was encroaching, and only the brave PCs could hold it back. And that seemed to be the approach taken in Keep on the Shadowfell.
But that’s only one possibility. What if that point of light wasn’t a candle in the wind? What if it was a spark in tinder? If empires crumble, then surely they must rise--That’s the model I wanted to use.
It seems like most of the fluff that WotC is giving us deals with the northern part of the former empire of Nerath. This is the part of the empire that was conquered by an army of gnolls and other evil humanoids (as detailed in the Dragon article on Yeenoghu. It’s also strongly implied that this area used to be part of the Tiefling empire of Bael Turath.
But what about Bael Turath’s ancient enemy, the Dragonborn empire of Arkhosia? We’ve been told that the dragonborn are a desert people, so it makes sense for Arkhosia to be in the southern part of Nerath and beyond.
So now we can start to form a picture of the Southern Lands. Since White Ruin’s Gnoll horde never advanced past the Nerathi capitol, the cities immediately to the south are in good shape. Without a central authority, they’ve devolved into city-states and petty kingdoms, but they still have enough wealth that the lives of their citizens aren’t as harsh as in the north. The petty kingdoms vie for dominance--sometimes through war, but just as often through trade and diplomacy. The arts, whether magical or mundane, are paramount. Something very much like renaissance Italy.
Further south, and our influence shifts to the American southwest. The area that was once the capital of Arkhosia has been transformed into a vast desert. Though the desert was technically a part of Nerath, the empire never exerted much control. Here we have small human trading settlements. Ground rich in precious metals attracts Dwarven and Goblin miners. Nomadic dragonborn wander the desert. At the far southern end of the desert lies a vast and unexplored jungle, patterned after the jungles of Central and South America. And that jungle, I’ve decided, will be the ultimate destination of the PCs.
Posted 27th June 2008 at 11:22 AM byarscott Updated 10th July 2008 at 02:51 PM byarscott
Okay, here's what's up. This post is designed to be a guide to enworld blogs, something a little bit friendlier than just a list of random names.
Think of it like a bookshelf--you can browse around, read the back cover or dust jacket, and pick up a book that catches your eye.
If you've got a blog, give a short description of it--what sort of things you write about, why someone would find it interesting, etc.--and post it in the comments. Don't forget to include a link.
Edit: At Asmor's excellent suggestion, I'll be migrating these entries to a Wiki as soon as Morris gets the Wiki system up and running.
Until then, keep posting your entries here.
Further Edit:
I've migrated everything to the wiki, here. This thread is now locked. If you want to add or modify your entry, follow the link to the wiki page.
Posted 27th June 2008 at 10:21 AM byarscott Updated 27th June 2008 at 02:47 PM byarscott
Ooh. We get blogs. That's a nice, and unexpected bonus. And I'd be remiss if I didn't play around with it for a bit.
Besides, a blog could do me a bit of good. I've gotten into the habit of not writing--the worst habit a writer can have. So I think I'll start posting here on a regular basis.
What you can expect to find here:
The Long Road
I just started a new 4th edition campaign. I'll be writing about my planning process and my reactions to what actually goes down at the table. Expect the first post in this series shortly
Great Responsibility
It strikes me that the 4e rules are very well suited to a superhero game. I'll be posting rules and flavor concepts, and if there's interest I might turn this into an actual product at some point.
Polycon
I'm involved with Polycon, the local gaming convention of the California central coast. I'll be posting information and announcements to entice all you folks to attend the main convention each summer and our smaller game-day events throughout the year.
And everything else
Random musings on the game, or general geekiness, as suits my fancy.
And yet another word from our sponsors
