Help with new character...

[Mallus]

...hi, I don't have the M&M book yet, but I do have a character concept, and I was wondering if anyone here could tell me if its feasible...

Penny Dreadful who channels the Mighty Power of Purple Prose... Basically, she's like Alan Moore's Promethea, except she's the Living Badly Written Story. She can summon the eternal spirits of purple prose and temporarily transform herself into characters out of shlocky pulp-quality writing.

Some of her alternate selves include.
Princess Spaceship, The Vensusian Vixen, Princess of Iridium.
Chimpanzetta a jungle-girl raised by chimps who's actually an Italian Contessa.

And maybe a hard-boiled detective, a noble Native American warrior a la Hawkeye, a temptress from an ancient sunken city straight out of H. Rider Haggard, an adventuress/dinosaur hunter from the Hollow Earth and a plucky young charmer who could work his way from the mail room to the boardroom like in a Horation Alger story. And of course, a nearly insane, obsessive occult investigator in search of Cthulhoid horrors.

Can this be done? And how?

 

[morrolan]

...hi, I don't have the M&M book yet, but I do have a character concept, and I was wondering if anyone here could tell me if its feasible...

Penny Dreadful

I'm not really up on M&M, But I gotta say that I love this concept. If I was your Gm I'd make it work!

 

[Mallus]

But I gotta say that I love this concept.

Thanks.

 

[takyris]

I think it's workable, but depending on the GM, it might be expensive.

The "Alternate Form" feat basically says "Create another character into whom you change." It was clearly intended to have people change from mild-mannered low-PL guy into Captain Hero, but you can use it in your way as well. The trick here is that you want to transform into a bunch of different people, each with different skills. And that's problematic -- because really, that gives you a ton of flexibility. It gives you the chance to fulfill all the roles of the team instead of just one. Think about it: If you designed a character who could transform from Wolverine into Green Lantern, wouldn't that kind of make the character more powerful than either hero on his own? You'd have to make the character a weaker version of each to compensate.

So what I'd do is this:

Option One: Limited Number of Identities:

Come up with a few set identities, and develop a Super-Power, like Cosmic Power, for each of them.

Princess Spaceship's Power: Force Field (base power, 2 pp with free Extra: Mental Shield from the errata); Extras: Energy Blast, Flight; Flaws: Only usable in Princess Spaceship Form; Cost 2+1+1-1=4pp/rank)

Chimpanzetta's Power: Super-Dexterity (base power, 4(??) pp; Extras: Swinging (vines that appear out of nowhere to support her), Snare (vine-nets); Flaws: Only usable in Chimpanzetta's Form; Cost 4+1+1-1=5pp/rank)

Xabrinia the Teenage Sorceress' Power: Sorcery (base power, 8(??) pp; Super-Intelligence (3 pp as extra?); Flaws: Ditch three of the schools, only usable in Xabrinia's Form: Cost 8+2-4-1 = 5pp/rank)

So you've got somebody who can blast people with technopower, snare people and dodge with chimp-power, and use mental powers on people as a sorceress. You won't have the points to be as good at it as somebody who was ONLY Princess Spaceship or Xabrinia, but you'll have a fun character to play.

You can also free up some points by giving yourself the Uncontrolled Transformation weakness, if it isn't voluntary on your heroine's part. If every time she's hit by an energy blast, she automatically turns into Spacegirl, that's not always a good thing.

Hope that helps.

 

[Mallus]

You can also free up some points by giving yourself the Uncontrolled Transformation weakness, if it isn't voluntary on your heroine's part. If every time she's hit by an energy blast, she automatically turns into Spacegirl, that's not always a good thing.
Hope that helps.

Would you say that not being able to choose what persona you transfrom into still counts as Uncontrolled Transformation? She's not the Hulk, but when she taps into the Power Purple, she can't choose how it manifests...

Oh, and thanks, this helps muchly.

 

[Mallus]

Option One: Limited Number of Identities:

Come up with a few set identities, and develop a Super-Power, like Cosmic Power, for each of them.

Just thought of something, what about skills for her alternate forms? In keeping with the pulp theme, most of her identities abilities will be skills, not actually superpowers --except Princess Spaceship...

 

[takyris]

Let's see... offhand:

1) Skillswise, as a GM, I'd be lenient and let your purchase of two or three iterations of the "Alternate Identity" feat give you the chance to respend all your skill points for each character. Skills rarely make or break a M&M game, in my (very limited) experience.

2) The problem with the Uncontrolled thing is this: The Hulk gets angry even when it's not appropriate. Bad guys can use it as a weapon against him. "Get this guy angry, he gets strong but stupid." But if Purple Prose Person is falling off a building and uncontrollably transforms into Chimpanzetta to swing to safety, and then uncontrollably transforms into force-field-protected Spacegirl when bullets start flying... is that really a weakness? If your "weakness" is that you automatically transform into a new identity that just happens to be totally appropriate for the circumstances you face, that's not really a weakness.

So, if you want it to be a weakness, my take as a GM would be: Give me a trigger for each identity that is not based on what's most useful (ie, every time someone uses the word "atomic", she has to save or turn into Spacegirl, but every time someone uses the word "monkey", she turns into Chimpanzetta), or, if it's controllable (ie, you call upon the power), I would want it to be randomly determined. You call upon the power, and you roll for it. Maybe you get the ideal person for the scenario, or maybe you're left to face giant robots with nothing but a lot of Int-based Super-skills, a whip, and a battered hat as you become Montana Jill, Archaeology Adventuress, who is great against Nazis and ancient spirits but not so hot against the giant robots.

 

[Mallus]

I would want it to be randomly determined. You call upon the power, and you roll for it. Maybe you get the ideal person for the scenario, or maybe you're left to face giant robots with nothing but a lot of Int-based Super-skills, a whip, and a battered hat as you become Montana Jill, Archaeology Adventuress, who is great against Nazis and ancient spirits but not so hot against the giant robots.

That's exactly how I want to do it. She doesn't transfrom based on a trigger event, she needs to consciously invoke her powers, otherwise, she's just a normal person.

If Penny Falls off a building, she invokes the Power Purple [as I roll a die] and hopes to God that she doesn't morph into Sue Manchu, the Dragon with a Blue Dress On, great at cocktail parties and busting up opium-smuggling rings, not so good against gravity.

I like Montana Jill... might need to rename her Miss Montana Wildhack [because I never met a cheesy joke I didn't like], The Country Girl who's Got the Reich A-Whirl...

I've been perusing the M&M messageboards over at Atomic Think Tank. Seems like you had a similar idea for a multiple form character. Did you wind up making it?

 

[takyris]

Yeah, Montana Jill was supposed to be a riff on Indiana Jones, but I couldn't come up with a good non-jones name that got the message across.

Nah. I'm just building characters for the experience of it, learning the ropes and such.

Current attempt: Karak the... Good. Born to the ruling class of his homeworld, Karak trained with the monks of (some other planet) to hone his skills, then stole a vial of the cosmic power serum of the Xylar to give himself the power to rule his world undisputed. After several centuries of dispotic rein, he was captured by the Xylar, a pacifist race who do not believe in killing, and branded with a mental compulsion field. The compulsion field stated:

1) You will never lead, but always be a follower.
2) You will always protect the helpless and the innocent from those who use their power for cruelty.
3) You will never harm the Xylar.

Now branded by the Xylar compulsion field, Karak was returned to the world he ruled, whereupon he promptly found himself too weak to rule as a result of his new morality compulsions. Fully aware that he was being forced to act in an ethical manner, he was nevertheless helpless to control himself. He passively allowed his former lieutenants to overthrow him, and even allowed them to sentence him to banishment and likely death -- fired in a ship toward a planet that contained a large amount of ammonia, a substance that is deadly to people of Karak's homeworld.

But he has not died. Instead, Karak has taken on a new role on Earth, using (reluctantly and with a great deal of muttering) his powers to protect the weak and the helpless from the cruelty of others. His efforts are complicated by the fact that, in the years since his arrival upon Earth, factions of his former homeworld have set him up as a hero in absentia, and there are groups that want him back in charge and groups that want him dead. Also, the Xylar have over time lost their pacifist edge and may be looking at Earth with nefarious designs, with Karak still helpless to stop them.

That's the flavor text. The numbers are harder.

I'm trying for something like:

Appearance: 6'5", red skin, long aristocratic nose, pencil-thin mustache, purple skullcap and cape, gold and purple uniform (as much like an old pulp-era Space Villain as possible)

Flavor:

Cosmic Power, minus "sense power" and transmutation power. Adding the Power Stunt "Space-Flight" to flight, and giving his force field the "mental protection" extra. So basically, tough to kill, capable of travelling through space, and with the ability to shoot energy blasts. (Source:Alien)

Super-Charisma (from his training time in the monastary), with the "Strike" and "Amazing Save:Will" extras, as well as "Fearful Presence" -- Charisma was what best modeled his determination, ability to rule, and general arrogant scariness as he beats the snot out of people. (Source:Training)

Ideally, I'd like to Power Stunt Energy Blast to Strike. The thought would be that if this guy is PL10, I have something like Cosmic Power (with EB) +6 or +7 and Super-Charisma (with strike) +5. If he uses his full powers, his Cosmic Power Strike stacks with his Super-Charisma strike, maxing out at +10 because of his PL (although it would be +11 or +12). But if challenged to fight without his cosmic powers, he simply uses the Strike powers he gained from training. Appearance-wise, this would be the difference between punching somebody with a fist that's glowing pure white from radiant energy and punching somebody without any energy, but still with a fair amount of martial arts training.

I'm worried about Munchkinism, but I want him to have two weaknesses: Quirk(permanent Xylar mind-compulsion) and Susceptible (ammonia). The mind-compulsion isn't that much of an enormous roleplaying burden, but if it is somehow neutralized, he will effectively become evil until it is turned back on again. (Um, no, I'm not ripping off Angel or Spike. Why do you ask? No. Really.)

Anyway, that's my current dude. Yours sounds like a ton of fun to play as well. Good luck with it!

 

[Mallus]

Anyway, that's my current dude. Yours sounds like a ton of fun to play as well. Good luck with it!

That's a pretty fine character too. Love the ellipses in his name, and the muttering part.

And thanks for the insight into M&M. Now I need to formulate a nefarious plan to wrest the rulebook away from my roommate tonight. Perhaps something involving free beer...