Challenge/Help: Make Me an M&M Werewolf

[RobNJ]

I'm going to run Mutants & Masterminds this weekend for the first time. I will be running the game on, like, Friday or Saturday and only bought the book today. Watch me walk the tightrope. Ooh and aah.

Anyway, one of the players wants to be a werewolf. I'm going low power, so I'm thinking around 5th level. Is it possible to do a werewolf with a 5th level build? What are the core powers needed? Skimming through the powers list nothing immediately jumps out at me. There's a shapeshifting power but even its limited form allows changes into "x-type".

 

[C. Baize]

*POOF*
You're a M&M Werewolf....

 

[RobNJ]

*POOF*
You're a M&M Werewolf....

Thaaanks.

Alright, let me get very specific: Does anyone know how you acheive transform-into-the-hero effects, such as Thor, The Hulk, Captain Marval (DC), etc. have?

 

[Bagpuss]

Hmm 5th level seems a little low, not saying I can't do it, but most of the stuff out for M&M is based around 10th or above, so any suppliments you by will either be of really limited use or require a lot of work to scale down.

I think Shapeshift is a red herring as a power for your werewolf. You might be better thinking of the powers the wolfman form will have and the 'change' is just the special effect like a costume almost. The Identity Change feat would cover the actual change to a wolfman.

So build it with certain powers that are available all the time even in human form perhaps the wolf-like sense give the Scent Feat and ranks in Combat Sense, Super Senses you might also look at Rapid Healing or Regeration or Amazing Save. Plus some combat feats.

Other stuff only comes in wolfman form IE: Natural Weapon, Growth?, Leaping, Super Dex, Super Str, Running. (Probably link these of the most expensive power Super Str?).

Also consider some Weakness like Transformation change on full moon, and even Berserker, Susceptible (Silver).

 

[Bagpuss]

How many skill ranks per power point are you going to be using? I would imagine at least 2 for 1, if you are keeping it so level if not 3 to 1. Otherwise there is going to be very little left for powers.

 

[RobNJ]

I definitely want to go low-power. Thanks for the info. Here's info about what I'm planning on running.

The player concepts so far are:

a psion who can psychically contact computers,

a telepath working as a CEO's secretary,

a werewolf (thus the thread) who has some of the passive abilities in human form, and hulks out for fighting,

and a shark who bit off a surfer's leg, then fell in love with that person, and was somehow transformed into a humanoid being and went on shore to find his victim, whom he loves (freakily cool).

These are some emails I sent to the players. It started out as d20 Urban Arcana but changed thanks to the character ideas.

Alternate America, 5 minutes from now (i.e., very near future). It is actually a fascist nation. It is also a world that has hidden within it, the fantastic.

You are in some way special or different. You may be a psion, or a wizard, or some kind of a monster hiding your face. You are part of a freedom-fighting group (maybe very organized, maybe something as low-down as a street gang)

This is going to be d20 Modern. Let me know if you're interested.

--

More details on the setting: There is the illusion of choice everywhere, but all choice is artificial and superficial. You can choose from thousands of different types of hair color and you can have toothpaste fitted to your own particular dream-profile. Consumer convenience is everywhere.

However you are locked in to your life. You're tested early and your ideal career is chosen. If you don't watch enough of the right programs or buy enough of the right products, friendly men from Central Government stop by and ask you in pleasant-yet-somehow-menacing tones about what they can do to better serve you.

You are off the radar. Or perhaps you're on it, but as a ghost image. You may live a normal life that is a lie, or you may barely know you're special, or you may be fully inside the underground.

--

You're inhuman in some way, or have truck with supernatural forces, and fascists dont' like that. YOu are by your nature outsiders, and have been embraced within an organization that fights against them (or you created it yourself, if that's more interesting to you).

I'm not THAT specific because I want room for your ideas to fill it. So if you want to be the types of people who are street thugs nd maybe just have a small group that resists in small ways, we can do that, or you can be part of a very organized and elaborate organization, we can work with that too.

Just run with the idea: Supernaturals (or supernatural-aware) in a mostly mundane world who are under the heel of a fascist government.

--

I should elaborate that I don't see this as a costumed heroes thing, but that the types of characters and abilities you guys have in mind might work best using superhero rules, if not the flavor.

--

We could go with an investigatory game, or a violent blowout, or whatever you guys are interested in.

(One Player) and (Another Player)'s first ideas are very investigatory. You could go with an all-investigation group, or you could go with some more violent concepts that would round out the "party".

Ideally I'd like to see at least one really cool fight, with most of it being personality-driven.

(One Player) brought up the idea of a sleeper cell of people the government labels as terrorists. Since his primary concept can talk to computers, and (Another Player)'s is a telepath that snoops in people's heads, having some muscle or social schmoozing at this point might be good.

--

Flavorwise I want us to avoid the usage of very superheroey feeling things, and go for more of a Buffyverse or World of Darkness feel in terms of the powers and abilities (unless everyone is super-jazzed about an overlty superheroic game).

So there are "powers" that can be descriptored in any way we want.

--

Some ideas based on some of the things you guys have come up with. I envision west-coast city with a lot of invovlement with the water. Maybe there are even venice-like canals. It's also a city that has a lot of wilderness around it (outside the suburbs, obviously). It's got its poor internal neighborhoods, but its suburbs are designed to be the perfect managed-wilderness enclave that a powerful and snooty elite would want to have. I see a lot of steel and concrete, and sections of the town that are decaying. I see a new media capital--Hollywood 2.0, where not only is a lot of money being made, but the way the world perceives itself is being generated.

I'm thinking sort of like Seattle/Hollywood/Venice.

 

[RobNJ]

I forgot to mention that I think I will be going for the 3 skill points for 1 power point thing.

 

[Bagpuss]

This is going to be d20 Modern. Let me know if you're interested.

You mean Mutants and Masterminds surely?

 

[RobNJ]

You mean Mutants and Masterminds surely?

I did, eventually. At first I was going to do Urban Arcana butthe concepts they were coming up with were better modeled with a superhero system.

 

[Bagpuss]

Right I've managed to do one...

Here goes...

Wolfman - PL 5; Init +3 (Dex); Defense 17 (14 flat-footed, 16 mental); Spd 30ft; Atk +6 Melee (+2S Fist or +7L wolfman claws ), +7 ranged; SV Dmg +3, Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +4; Str 14, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 10, Will 14, Cha 12.
Skills (only ranks listed not totals) Acrobatics +5, Listen +2, Move Silently +5, Survival +2
Feats Scent; All-Out Attack; Iron Will; Identity Change (to wolfman)
Powers Growth +3 (wolfman form) [Extras: Leaping; Running; Super-Dexterity; Super-Sense; Natural Weapon (Claws [only rank 2])]; Rengeneration +5 (lycanthrope)
Weakness Transformation, light of full moon, Will save DC15 (+1/round); Susceptible (Silver); Berserker, will save dc 20 or go berserk.

Been really cheeky linking so many powers as extras to Growth but that means if he isn't in wolf form he can't use the powers and they can all be drained in one go. If it wasn't limited to PL I would have probably moved Super Dex and Super-Sense and Natural Weapon out to be seperate powers allowing him to semi-transform to improve his hearing for example.

Also if I had more points I wouldn't have used the Berserker weakness since its a real pain especially since a PL his saves are so low.

Wolfman form gives all sorts of bonuses to the basic profile that aren't listed.

I've posted the character excell spreadsheet on my webspace for you to download so you can check my calculations or play around with it.