Two character creation questions

[venthrac]

Hello everyone,

Some friends and I are about to start up a game or MURPG, and last night we got together and took our first stab at character creation. We had a couple of questions come up:

First, Mastery of Elements grants a -1 to the cost of Flight. For characters who take this Action multiple times (to get different elements), is this cost reduction cumulative?

Second, one of our players is playing the old villain Killer Shrike (now reformed), and in order to ensure that he is in compliance with the 40 stone starting character allotment, we decided to create him from scratch. Where we ran into trouble was his wrist-bracers. Killer Shrike’s titanium wrist-talons have both claws, and an electrical blast. How should this be handled curing character creation? If it a Modifier? A piece of Equipment? An Action? Some combination of these? Does he pay for this from his character creation stones?

My assumption is that the claws part is a modifier to close combat damage, but we didn't know how to handle the electrical blast. In the end we just gave him the Eerngy Blast powers and said it comes from th ewrist-talons, and that if he loses them or they are destroyed, he loses the power (and the claws). Does that sound reasonable?

[Jet]

1. No, more then 1 mastery wont really give you more discount. But since I havent seen anyone using such build, I guess its all up to GM. I would say "no".

2. Easy. As you figured, the first part is Claws, as written in book. The Energy Blast however could be just a ranged weapon that instead of bullets, shoots energy. Cost level is +1, you can buy any advantages you wish and stones are free and combines with Ranged Combat.

[Dullahan]

First, for the Mastery of elements, the answer is no, it's a one time thing. Flight is fairly cheap anyway, so reducing it like that can get ridiculous.


Second, yeah, that sounds fair. Force blast with the disadvantage Power tied to device, yeah that's one way to do it. But, someone more experianced should weigh in on this one.

[Ataro]

Since my keyboard died, i'll make this quick, try using the hulk book,its useful, I use it often.

[spook]

You can go several ways. Claws part was handled already, enough about that. But as for the forceblast:

Way 1: Mastery, needs a device to use power (Power out of control, or device gives mastery)

Way 2: Gun that has a weapon mod, combines with ranged combat (Has to be paid by creation stones, see Avengers guide for more details)

[turnagealfonsojermaine]

MacGuffin ? I am re-introduction soon a character w/ a Dream manipulation power. It is quite powerful, when he's asleep and the target is asleep which is useful if he knocks them unconscious BUT . . . I was thinking of making thi a faux 10th action since it won't come into play often and I want he to have Healing Medical? Does that make sense? Tell me if U need more info.

[Brainstem]

No, you can't do that.

[malice]

Lol, turnagealfonso has some serious talent for necromancy.

Also lol at everyone who was afraid of some person getting cheap flight by buying a bunch of MASTERIES. God forbid it be significantly cheaper than blasting.

[jayholden]

Feb 5, 2011 17:34:17 GMT -5 turnagealfonsojermaine said:

MacGuffin ? I am re-introduction soon a character w/ a Dream manipulation power. It is quite powerful, when he's asleep and the target is asleep which is useful if he knocks them unconscious BUT . . . I was thinking of making thi a faux 10th action since it won't come into play often and I want he to have Healing Medical? Does that make sense? Tell me if U need more info.

Telepathy w/ appropriate Options (project thoughts/control others or Illusions) w/ custom Disadvantage "cannot be used unless target is asleep -2CL." What you're describing is somewhere between the disadvantages "Not particularly useful" and "must maintain eye contact."

[turnagealfonsojermaine]

Uh, I have no idea of the relevance of the last two answers, I am sorry please elaborate?

[Brainstem]

You can't take a tenth Action, even if you're not using one of the Actions much. You have to consolidate what's on your sheet and I guarantee there's something that's either unnecessary or that there are two Actions that can be combined.

[raynorn]

It also depends on the GM and house rules.

In my games people can have as many actions as they want, just remember that spreading the Stone Pool around too much may leave your character feeling underpowered compared to others.

[malice]

Eh, I keep the 9 action limit, because I find that if you can't do it with 9 actions or less, you really shouldn't be doing it.

Early on I remember one of my players forgot there was a 9 action limit, and he had like 12 actions, but most of them were utility actions that he bought "just in case." I caught the mistake and corrected him, and I'm pretty sure he wasn't that disappointed because it saved him tons of stones and tons of worthless rainy day garbage that would've been ignored anyway (If players don't have an appropriate action, the GM compensates one way or another, so "always having the appropriate action" is pretty much worthless).

Also, I think it's usually a poor demonstration of someone's character creation skills if they can't figure out how to make a character work with less than 9 actions. I may be making the mistake of assuming the player has a realistic idea of a beginning character's capability, because another thing I've noticed is that people who refuse to envision their character with anything less then 75 actions are actually just refusing to start where all the heroes in the comics started: At square 1.

Obviously I'm talking about a default generic campaign as suggested in the books, and I'm also biased toward original characters. The 40 + unlimited that is suggested will buy you a lot of the heroes who have been traipsing around a comic book universe for 40 years (that's a year of play for each stone they started with), but it's supposed to buy you an original hero who is just getting started, which means you're starting ahead of where a lot of them did and only really behind the favorites anyway.

[turnagealfonsojermaine]

1.) Mutant born with Dream Manip.
2. & 3.) Close/Ranged Combat
4.) Social Skills
5. & 6.) (Normal) Energy Absorption/Reflection & Kinetic Absorption
7.) Flight
8.) Leadership
9.) Healing, Medical
10.) Psychiatry

--- Any one who could help 9 or less would prove very helpful, even in a stone-no-object-game/Defience is not meant, a NEED for HELP is ?!

[77odinson77]

Thematically, I don't understand why Flight, EA/R, and KA are part of your character's build. The dream thing is a really cool base concept, but those powers have nothing to do with it. Instead of Flight, I'd recommend Astral Travel with the "Body travels with you" option. In lieu of EA/R and KA, how about Create Illusions? If you know someone's nightmares and you're ever fighting them, you could devastate them mentally and emotionally by manifesting those nightmares before their very eyes (such an act should certainly garner bonus Situational Modifier stones). As for the Medical Healing and Psychiatry, I would choose one or the other, unless you really feel like justifying to a GM how the character managed to do sixteen years of post-secondary education and he's only in his early twenties.

I hope that didn't sound too harsh, and I apologize for any hurt feelings I may have caused; I assure you, that was not my intent. All the same, I hope my advice helps you in refining the character, as I really do like the concept of a dream manipulator.