WOIN Super Hero style game

David Anderson Jr · Aug 26, 2018

Hey everyone - I've been lurking on the threads here for a while, and I own NOW and NEW in print, and OLD, NOW and NEW in pdf. I'm searching for a system to run an original campaign and I'm almost old on a combination of NOW and NEW.

Here's the thing. It's going to be a low powered superhero style, a street level kind of thing, but a little more powered than they have it in the NOW rule book. There, the MUTANT origin allows you one mutant power, and it kind of stops there.

Do you think that the game would be unbalanced if there were a way for PCs to gain more than one mutant power, and if it wouldn't be unbalanced, (I'm guessing balance would be more a question of the opposition that I, as the GM, would throw at them), what's the best way to allow for multiple mutant powers?

My initial thought is this:

Create a MUTANT POWER or MUTANT GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, whatever career. Build it out so that the major trait they would get would be either a new mutant power or an advance on one they already have. Needless to say, make a prerequisite that they must have the MUTANT origin. Allow them to take this career once for free, and a second time if they roll on a MUTATION table, where they would gain an obvious physical or mental mutation that would be a hindrance of some sort. (Super tall and thin, all-black eyes, strange affect, etc.)

Would anyone have any thoughts on this?

M3woods · Aug 26, 2018

I've been considering building superpower 'careers', similar to how martial art schools are done in NOW. For example, an Element Control (fire) career, with exploits available to access Elemental Blast, Flight, Burning Aura, etc... I was thinking that Superhero Archetypes might be used for the Origin career (Power Suit, Mystic, Brick, Blaster...) The actual origin of the powers (Mutant, Accident, Gadget) would simply be an aspect of the character's background story.

Doing Careers would allow players to stay focused on one power set or branch to other sets to vary a character's powers.

David Anderson Jr · Aug 27, 2018

That's an excellent idea. You could then change the DESCRIPTOR to reflect origins and things of that nature. In fact, in a supers game, you could change the DESCRIPTOR entirely to suit the game. Here's a stab at it:

A [power type] [origin] [identity] who /with [motivation].

So Spiderman would be, "An anthropomorphic science experiment gone wrong news photographer who is atoning for the death of his Uncle."

The [hook] is now the motivation, and when dealing with a situation that directly relates to that motivation their dice explode. (This might need a lot more consideration to be a workable mechanic as it would probably be prone to a lot of player abuse.)

A couple of consideration are the use of devices and power suits. Are they something that can be taken away? Powered down? Damaged? If so, how are they fixed? That would probably be a mechanic of the Origin Career probably. (I really like that idea because the powers could be independent of the Origin Career, so you could mix and match.)

The last big question I would have at this point is what about weaknesses? Do you allow the players to 'buy' a weakness in exchange for, a super-power trait? Or would that violate the spirit of the Career system that N.O.W. is built on?

So many questions, so much work! I want to write a N.O.W. supers hack.

Morrus · Aug 27, 2018

Could you not just extend the mutant powers to higher than the three "levels" they currently have?

David Anderson Jr · Aug 27, 2018

Morrus said:
Could you not just extend the mutant powers to higher than the three "levels" they currently have?

That would work, but for the game that I would want to run the PCs would need access to more than 1 power. If I'm reading N.O.W. correctly, and I very well might not be, following the current character creation path allows for only 1 mutant power. I would like to see my players have access to 2 or 3 powers. That's what I've been working on.

Kobold Boots · Aug 27, 2018

David Anderson Jr said:
That would work, but for the game that I would want to run the PCs would need access to more than 1 power. If I'm reading N.O.W. correctly, and I very well might not be, following the current character creation path allows for only 1 mutant power. I would like to see my players have access to 2 or 3 powers. That's what I've been working on.

I don't know the system at all, but from running things like HERO for a good while, I'd look at how feasible it is to treat each mutant power like a framework and simply say that the power may be "flame control" and then the levels be a feat that extends the power.. so level one would be "get hot" and level five might be "fly".

The point would be turning the power into a theme rather than have multiple powers.

KB

David Anderson Jr · Aug 27, 2018

KB,

I see what you're saying, and it's even more awesomer. (That's a word.) What if we treated power effects (not powers) as exploits. There could be power specific exploits and general exploits that would just need the tags added to them.

So, like, flight could be a general exploit with a number of levels, such as fast, faster, really fast. Pick one exploit as your major ability for that power, then you could add on additional exploits to flesh out your hero.

That could still work with the career system, and I really like the idea of it a whole bunch.

Thanks, KB.

Kobold Boots · Aug 27, 2018

David Anderson Jr said:
KB,

I see what you're saying, and it's even more awesomer. (That's a word.) What if we treated power effects (not powers) as exploits. There could be power specific exploits and general exploits that would just need the tags added to them.

So, like, flight could be a general exploit with a number of levels, such as fast, faster, really fast. Pick one exploit as your major ability for that power, then you could add on additional exploits to flesh out your hero.

That could still work with the career system, and I really like the idea of it a whole bunch.

Thanks, KB.

You're welcome