Sky Captain

[teitan]

I recently saw this most excellent film and was inspired to revive my old Flash Gordon style campaign ideas I once posted here. Initially my designs called for D20 Modern but I didn't want such a "nit picky" system to run the game with but I got to thinking more on the idea of using M&M for this kind of high adventure serial/pulp style storytelling (serial moreso than Pulp) and the rules in Nocturnals really helped to create a sense of "hey, I can do this".

Here are my ideas. Skills are two for 1, no PL caps. PL caps work great for M&M but not for serial etc. With a low enough pool of Power Points the skills can be more freeform and I will explain why in a minute...

Anyway, skills 2 for 1. Attributes as normal. Feats are normal. Powers is the itchy point. Powers need to be seperated into three types, weird tech (I am calling them Tesla Devices), sorcery and psychic powers (not a lot of difference between the two except sorcery allows for more weirdness). Sorcery covers the weird things like invisibility etc. and psychic powers is things like reading men's minds. These would be the origins of the powers like in the core MnM book as opposed to the usual origins. Of course, training would also be in there...

Now, Hero Points... serial and pulp heroes find themselves in rough spots all the time, but having a ready supply of hero points kind of ruins that mood so hero points no longer rely on power level in this idea. There is a new rule in the MnM annual on giving out HP for failing actions, getting in sticky situtations as the session goes on. Well, that is how you get your HP instead of the usual PL based HP... of course with this rule a lot of players will take Heroes Luck but hey, that even fits the genre.

I have even been tinkering with the idea of using a D10 instead of a D20 and making the damage DC into a roll the defender has to beat but that is a different story altogether.

What do you guys think?

Jason

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I think I like it. But I would like to see Sky Captain first in order to get a better sense of a solid response.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

It seems like one of those things where the rules, as written, will work fine for what you're trying to do.

Not sure where you're going with the d10 thing.

Anyway, I like it ... you can call it "Tesla Devices" but why not just "Superscience"? Then if you had questions/posts/ideas you wanted to share with other M&M people on these and other boards you don't have to explain that Tesla Devices is actually Superscience ... as they're the same thing ... scientific gadgetry beyond the ability of modern (or past) science. I.E. a DaVinci steam helicopter in a swashbuckler game is still Superscience, as opposed to SteamPunkery or DaVinci Devices.

Same with Sorcery ("Mystical") and, I think, Psychic is already an applied tag for M&M so I doubt you'd have any confusion there. (Or maybe that's counted as Mutation, but I'm not sure).

Anyway, I'd say just let the rules stand ... if you try to limit powers out of hand to a handful of Hand-Picked-Specialized powers, you're going to limit your players. Instead, I'd just explain to them the sort of setting you're going to be playing in and you want everybody to use those three descriptors for their powers, unless they can come up with a great serial/pulp reason for something else. I find players can be surprisingly good at figuring out interesting stuff you'd have never thought of that fits in the genre.

You've got fiat, so just work with your players to refine, reign in, and better tailor their initial ideas to fit into the framework of your setting.

--fje

 

[teitan]

I was going for flavour darn it. Anyway, I think M&M is fine out of the box for a lot of things and as a basis for a lot of things, my player's just complain about the PL limited and I think that a PL 6 game can be easily PLed out of existence. I mean how far do you take the characters before you say "too powerful" yet they still have lower skills etc.

The D10 thing was to lessen the variable. A 20 point variable is a very broad range for successfor such low skill ranks. With a 10 sider it changes the variable probabilities. I probably won't go that far, tongue in cheek statement. But using a 20 sider at PL 6 is kind of like suicide on your skill checks.

Jason

 

[DMScott]

The D10 thing was to lessen the variable. A 20 point variable is a very broad range for successfor such low skill ranks. With a 10 sider it changes the variable probabilities. I probably won't go that far, tongue in cheek statement. But using a 20 sider at PL 6 is kind of like suicide on your skill checks.

You'll still get pretty variable results using a d10, the problem is as much in the flat curve as in the die size. You might mess around with using 2d10, which would give a bit of a bell curve but shouldn't require messing around with DCs. 3d6 would give even more of a curve.

I've thought about using 2d10 with M&M at PL 10 levels, to make the extreme results a little less common. Haven't tried it out yet.

M&M Noir is supposed to have some pulp-type stuff in it, you might want to wait for that and see if there's some useful stuff to steal.

 

[Emiricol]

Rather than PL cap, if you want PCs not to get levelled out just put a rank cap on powers. That's one idea, anyway.

 

[teitan]

Actually, I already thought of the level caps on skills and powers. I also worked out some feats to allow the players to "bend" those caps to create a Doc Savage type.

Jason

 

[The Grackle]

I have even been tinkering with the idea of using a D10 instead of a D20 and making the damage DC into a roll the defender has to beat but that is a different story altogether.

Wha...? Isn't that how the damage saves work already? or am I misunderstanding you?
I use the Damage Roll option on page 128, and it works fine.



If your'e really going for Sky Captain, I wouldn't let them buy powers except maybe Super INT or Super DEX. Then give them extra points to spend on a higher PL plane or robot-vehicle.

 

[teitan]

Damage actually isn't usually rolled. I created an option rules I use where a 6 sided die is rolled and then the result affects what the damage DC. Example of this mechanic:

Roll of a 1 add 5 to the ranks as opposed to 15

Roll of a 2 add ten as opposed to 15

3-5 Standard DC

Roll a 6 add 20 to the DC

This is the sort of thing I was talking about. I am dropping the idea though.

Jason

 

[Piratecat]

The movie also inspired me, but I'm using the excellent Adventure! d20 rules. These are astonishingly good pulp rules. You could cross them with Grim Tales to make more customizeable "classes" while still keeping the Adventure! background feats and inspiration rules (the things that make your character a pulp star, able to do superhuman stunts) and have perhaps the perfect pulp game.