My proposed house rules & recommendations

[Doug McCrae]

Early draft stage so far. Thoughts?


House Rules & Recommendations

1. Unlimited power points
2. No PL limits

Aim for PL 10 equivalent, ie attack bonus, damage or save DC, defense and toughness of 10. Saves are assumed to be two less than PL.

Characters can be 'unbalanced', with a higher offense than defence, or vice versa. For example a PC could have +10 to hit, +12 damage, +8 defense, +10 toughness.

The 'typical' PL 10 character has strong non-combat abilities in one area, such as movement, and three or less viable combat options, such as a standard attack, an area effect and a 'Sunday Punch' usable once per session. Skyrmion, below, is an example of a typical PL 10 character.

A typical character, PL 10
Skyrmion is a physicist at CERN. Acquired powers after an accident involving the Large Hadron Collider in 2008.

COMBAT
Attack +10, Damage +10, Defense +10, Toughness +10.
Fort +8, Ref +8, Will +8

ATTACKS
Baryonic Bolt. +10 to hit, +10 damage
Meson Wave. Area Effect. DC 16, +6 damage
Large Hadron Collider. 1/session. +12 to hit, +16 damage

OTHER ABILITIES
Flight 7 (1000mph), sense + analyze high-energy particles, good scientific skills (physics, maths, computing) +15

Recommendations

PLs for atypical characters
Wide-ranging non-combat abilities – PL 8. Movement, investigative (mind reading or many enhanced senses), general purpose such as object creation, mind control, gadgeteering. Superman, Batman, Dr Strange, Mr Fantastic, Green Lantern
Limited non-combat abilities, strong in one area or weak in many – PL 10. Movement or enhanced senses or highly skilled. Flash, Daredevil, Wolverine
Only good in combat, many options (9 or more). PL 10
Only good in combat, several options (4-8). PL 11
Only good in combat, limited options (3 or less). PL 12
Only good in combat plus significant limits such as no ranged attacks or movement powers. PL 14. The Thing

PL includes PL breakers, so for example perfect invisibility would be regarded as adding 7 to attack bonus (3.5 to OPL, just under 2 to total PL), Improved Critical (11-20) is effectively almost +5 to damage and so forth.

Options in combat
It's probably best not to take a single very good attack power and use it all the time. Instead present yourself with multiple viable options, 3-6 or so. The aim is to give you a moderate number of competing, equally viable alternatives.

OPL = Offensive Power Level, average of attack bonus and save DC
DPL = Defensive Power Level, average of defence and toughness

Only real limitations can increase the power level of a power. For example reducing defence if the character already has 0 defence isn't a limitation.

Example offensive options
Area Effect OPL minus 4.
Affects two opponents simultaneously OPL minus 2.
Perception attack, damage minus 4.
Damage plus 'rider', such as Stun, OPL minus 2.
Reduces defence for one round when used. OPL plus half whatever defence is reduced by. For example reducing DPL by 4 translates to a OPL plus 2 attack.
Once per session. OPL plus 4.
Once per campaign. OPL plus 10.
Power works about 75% of the time*. OPL plus 1.
Power only works 50% of the time. OPL plus 2.
Power only works 25% of the time. OPL plus 3.
Power only works 10% of the time. OPL plus 4.
*This figure refers to when needed, the power is sometimes not available, not the total time the character is alive.

Defences
Special defences, such as a once per session self-heal that auto-activates, count as options in combat. Very good defences such as wide-ranging regeneration or reflection would require weakening the character in other areas, such as taking no non-combat abilities.

Avoid binary powers
Examples: Impervious, immunities, very high attacks or very low defences/saves

'DC-types'
'DC-types' are not recommended. These are superheroes that are either very very good, or totally useless. For example Superman is amazing, but loses all his powers when faced with kryptonite. These characters are very binary.

Better would be a character who, say, gets +2 PL at night and -2 PL by day. Or a single power that doesn't work in the presence of kryptonite.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Thoughts?
1. Unlimited power points
2. No PL limits

1. Good.
2. Right-o. Making my PL 50 Superman-type. +40 attack, +60 damage, +20 defense, +80 toughness (60 Impervious). Other saves around 40; no need to be completely ridiculous.
You might conclude that I think #2 is a bad idea. You'd be flawed; I think it is a bad idea as written, but it is quite workable overall.

From the rest of what you've said, it would be better to say that you're redefining PL limits. You also seem to be wanting a highly mixed power level, where only highly specialized characters are very powerful; the more diverse and flexible an ability set, the lower the character's PL.
So, a D&D "Batman" wizard (that can do everything better than everyone) would be around PL 6. Which would make him practically useless in a group that contains a lot of PL 9 to 12 characters.


I'd recommend that you sit down with the players, discuss their character idea, and based upon your understanding of what they've explained, assign a PL with the usual limits. Then encourage the player to only give it abilities of a level (and breadth) appropriate to the concept; unlimited points, so build what fits the character, and not power-mongering the system.

Also, watch out for the mechanic breaking points. You know, Mind Rape (in it's many forms), too generous to Super-Speed, Invisibility, Immunity, too much Impervious, Intangibility, accurate Teleport, etc.


Good luck

 

[Doug McCrae]

Yes, it's probably more correct to say that PL is relaxed rather than removed.

This is an attempt to solve a number of problems with M&M, particularly with regards to balance. As it currently stands M&M encourages a very specific build - lots of PL breakers such as Imp Crit (leading to very high damage but with no ability to increase toughness because it's held in check by PL) and a suite of alternate powers. Alternate powers are incredibly cheap in M&M, leading to a strong temptation to create essentially Green Lantern/Dr Strange with Wolverine's claws.

My system is an attempt to allow for a much wider variety of characters.

Unfortunately M&M is nowhere near the stage where points are a reliable indicator of power level. Hence I advocate ditching power points. If they don't tell you how powerful a character is then they serve no useful purpose whatsoever, merely take up brainspace, + cause char creation to take longer.

My system puts a lot of responsibility on the player. Most of it is just guidelines. The main thing to do is to use Skyrmion, the 'typical' PL 10 character, as a guide. If a char is more powerful than Skyrmion in some areas, he should be less powerful in others. Just how much is a bit trickier to determine.

The PL system as it currently stands is much too limiting (in some areas, while allowing too much in others). Some powers that are perfectly reasonable, and also a lot of fun, such as a 'Nova Flame' type of power that can't be used very often, 1/session or even 1/campaign, are impossible under the PL system.

A problem that I've struggled with endlessly in rpgs, and particularly superhero games is how to balance a big strong guy with a 'wizard'. It's very similar to the D&D problem of balancing the fighter with the wizard. In 4e, they are equally powerful in combat. I take a somewhat different view (though I've found 4e to be very inspiring in many ways - the suites of 3-9 attack powers that force interesting choices are very much inspired by 4e. I may also flesh out a Second Wind option.) For me non-combat is a significant part of the game and so is combat. So if one PC has very good non-cmbat powers - mind-reading, gadgeteering and the like - then I feel that must be 'paid for' by reduced power in combat.

Essentially I'm advocating a system in which all that matters are the end numbers, the final character, and I would like the player to use his own judgement to a large extent.

 

[Doug McCrae]

In addition to the sample PC, I'm also intending to create a fairly detailed set of 'benchmarks'. How srong is 'strongest there is' in this world, how smart is Reed Richards, how fast is the fastest speedster and so forth.

With any freeform point buy system such as M&M, there can be a lot of uncertainty on the part of the players. Sometimes they keep putting points into X because they regard it as their speciality and are afraid thast it isn't high enough. With a good system of benchmarks I should be able to put the players minds at rest.

Benchmarks are particularly important for a system like mine, where only the final numbers matter. You really have to get those numbers right, to represent the character one envisions.

The values that i'm looking for in PCs can vary from campaign to campaign also. A Justice League/Avengers, 'world's bestest super-team', will have higher benchmarks, and PLs, than a New York-based campaign.

 

[ValhallaGH]

I find myself in disagreement on a number of points, but I'll chalk it up to personal taste, group play-styles, and very different ideas about "balance" and the utility of power points. Because of those differences, I wouldn't want to play in your game(s), and I can't figure out how to help you get what you want out of your house rules (because my own inclinations are almost directly opposite).

Good luck, and I wish I could be of more help.