Hey guys! Im recently starting a game with Worlds in Peril with Shonen-Like heroes, “Schools of battle”, dragoons, light and evil and that stuff..
So, the question is: How would you handle regeneration power? one of my players took it at a simple level in the power profile. How would you handle that power? Cause with the other powers i can figure something, its just about narrative positioning, i get that. For example, flying, or things like that. But.. ¿Regeneration? Should i just, simply make her reduced physical damage? (On game, reducing the severity of condition?) I am really clueless, could you help me, please? Thank you.
So what I do with regeneration is consider fictional positioning in the same way as the other powers you describe. I make sure to describe it in the fiction, and the make sure that any hits against them have to be hard to impose a Condition. So, for example, I’ll describe some scenes in which I tell them that any other person would have been down and out, but your cuts close up and you shake off the concussion as your skull stitches itself back together, that kinda thing. When they do take Conditions, it can be way more serious too, which can be fun – like stuff that would otherwise kill other heroes. You can narrate them getting smashed into a building and it falling on top of them, but just give them the Condition “buried under rumble”. You can be pretty creative with the kinds of Conditions you impose on them, but still impose them, if you follow.
That said, I don’t let them recover from Conditions just because of their power – though I will at times rename the Condition. So maybe in the battle they took a Condition like “ruptured kidney”, and I can tell them that, over time, the Condition becomes “bruised side” or even something completely different, like “Feeling guilty” or something like that depending on the Condition. I work with the player and tell them straight up that it’s not going to be avoid being put in danger – because that would really be no fun for anybody if the PC is never challenged, at risk, or in danger so we can work together on different fallout sometimes, whether it be emotional or physical.
I don’t let them side-step having to deal with Conditions or having to make the FIt In move, but do I do allow for the power and recognize what kinds of scenes and how they want to look in fights.
Hope that helps! Let me know if any of that doesn’t make sense or if you have other questions.
Thats great. And healing? The same character has a power for healing others. How would you use it?
Healing characters are a bit tricky, no doubt about it. It wasn’t really something we prioritized because there are virtually no heroes whose power it is solely to heal stuff (I can only really think of that one kid in the new Uncanny X-Men book and, surprise surprise all he does is kind of run around and tries not to get hurt until the end of a battle, then heals people who got hurt).
The only way to actually heal from Conditions in the game as written though, is with the special moves (Fit In – during downtime basically), or just when the fiction demands it (if iceman freezes my arm to give me the Condition “On Ice” or whatever, I just need to tell the EIC that I’m thawing it out, smashing it against the wall to break it, or whatever else to remove the Condition). So, like all powers, his power to heal is going to be fictional justification for doing stuff in the game world; they can run around removing Conditions as long as it makes sense to within their power description and the limits implied by the Powers Profile and Summary.
If that’s their only thing though, they won’t have much agency, since if the rest of the team are super strong and good at bashing stuff, the villains are going to be super strong too, so that’ll mean the healer character is going to be solely on damage control, or is going to have to get pretty creative. If that player is cool with that, that’s fine I guess.
If it’s just one of several powers – like Wolverine’s healing factor, for example, then the EIC will just take that into account when handing out Conditions and when they’re recovering (it’s going to take a lot more to give Wolverine a Critical Condition than Kitty Pryde). Then they’ve at least got some stuff to do in combat as well though, right.
If it’s a power they’re using towards others, their Power Summary and Powers Profile is going to dictate what they can heal, when, and how hard it is for them to do it. I think, if you get down to it with what the power is actually doing though, maybe healers can be doing something similar to cause damage too, right? It might make the game pretty gritty though if one guy is rearranging the atoms of the villain and shutting down their brain and stuff. Anyway, if their main schtick is just healing, their Powers Profile might something look like this, off the top of my head?
Simple – Mend minor cuts and bruises, stop bleeding.
Difficult – Transfer or take on any damage my target has taken to myself.
Possible – To reroute or block the neurons of the brain so that the target no longer feels any pain.
Impossible – Bring someone back from the dead.
Her character is a support-type of character. She has mind-reading, mental control of pain (on her body) and regeneration, plus a Borderline capability to make her partners be able to syncro their abilities at the point of perfection.
What do you think about that set? should i tell her to swap some powers?
Another thing. Im doing a School like X-men kind of game, but im having a hard time to setup it. In the city setting its easier since everything is smaller. But in this kind of game where the city in this game is the school as it is (wich is city size with 2 sides competing and a lot of stuff), i dont really know how to start doing a setup. I have people upset with the status quo and plans but still, im afraid that the missions and that stuff would be too much imposed than collaborative. So the question here is: Motivations and Origin handles the personal arcs and personal implementation of tropes, themes and risk by itself? What prompts can i pull out for them to change the world? cause it seems that the villain has his plans and that plans are rigid (wether they go bad or well, all possibilities are pre-established)
Dont take it as a complain, just as an user that takes on another kind of setting and want some tips from the people that knows best his game :P!
Whether you want her to change her powers is up to you – as long as you feel like you’ll be able to put her character in danger and make the game tense and entertaining then there shouldn’t be an issue. She does sound pretty powerful for a starting character in terms of powers, but she’ll probably have to push pretty often to open those abilities up considering she can only start with so much in her Powers Profile and there’s no way she’ll be able to give enough attention to each power so it could be ok.
I’m not sure what you mean about the villain having plans that are rigid. If you look at the EIC sheet and read that section in the book you can see that while the villain’s starts with a goal and a plan to achieve that goal, you only plan it out loosely and have the first one or two steps worked out. Their plans, motivations and even goals are fluid and will change after contact with the PCs – that’s why you shouldn’t be writing anything down in terms of long-term plans to get their change in the world set. Once you have your villain(s) and their motivations, along with organizations and their instincts you should be able to develop the story pretty fluidly based on that and what the PCs become focused on. There are no pre-established possibilities at all – it’s on your principles as an EIC to play to find out what happens, not set out a story arc and have them follow it.
If you want different prompts for how the world reacts to them you can change the bonds a bit – The CIty could become “The People” and “Law Enforcement” could be the same or it could be “The Agency” or “The Government” or whatever you like. If it’s the X-Men, it’s mostly those things they have to deal with in addition to villains breaking down their doors or going out and finding new mutants and saving them. By having news story play, newspapers be read out, rumors start around campus and having that be reflected in their Bonds they’ll get a sense of how the world is reacting to them. Ask your players what kind of game they want to play and take your prompts from there. Is it more like the X-Men where the stories are personal and focused on one person at a time, or is like The Authority, where they feel like they need to balance struggles at home with helping out other places in the world? Do they want to focus on drama in the school? Then focus on creating interesting personalities for them to focus on and interact with. Do they want to focus on the city, other dimensions, the world, cosmic stuff, etc. Or just throw all kinds of stuff out there, let them know there’s no way they’ll be able to deal with everything, and see what they end up choosing and focus on that, and have to deal with fallout from everything else.
My game group wants a game focused on the school drama, rivalry and that stuff. I created the world having them stablishing Facts with me about the world, about the threats and about the school. I have an origin of their powers, i have some vital energy called Ki that covers the sole source of every manifestation of power or “Awakening” as we call it, i have threats, i have things in the world, 2 big antagonistic groups in the school (One of them is fighting to banish the evil, the other is fighting to banish the “Exalted good”, a sort of crazy good that could blow everything since attracts worse evil, this all like Taoist Philosophy of Yin and Yang, too much of one or other is bad, and requires balance), powerful creatures and people that takes advantage of too much energy in the world that uses this power to do different things, and that stuff.
The people that balances the world one way or another are both in the same school, that acts as a huge city. Thats the main core of the game built for now.
I am facing the first session, im thinking about doing some school day, training, the team presentation, and having them naming rivals in the school or friends.
But how do i do with all of this something interesting? My first idea was to have them doing missions outside the school and having them developing internal conflicts on the school after that missions. What should i do? Include this threats in some way influencing the school? Having the school threatened from the inside? I have read that section in the book but i dont know if only making them have some motivations, goals or plans things will go smooth. Should i just trust the process?
It sounds like you have a lot of stuff you can use for your first session. If you need inspiration for the kinds of stories it sounds like they want maybe look to Wolverine and the X-Men? You said they want to focus on school drama. If they’re students then I would start developing conflicts with other classmates and teachers – the threats you throw at them can come from training sessions, bullying, attacks on the school, initiations, trying to do stuff without the adults noticing, and so on.
Don’t worry too much about it and trust in the stuff you’ve come up with together – if they helped you with it they’ll be interested already. Start them off in a combat situation first – just tell them where they are and then ask them why they are there if you need to (you’re in lower earth orbit with professor mckimmie. why are you there? next person – what would you be studying there? Who do you not get along with in the class? etc.) Then, give them stuff to deal with – other characters for interpersonal conflict if you want, but definitely start with a threat like a meteor shower, or a space ship picking them up, or whatever). Once you resolve a conflict they’ll want to Fit In so give them some downtime to recover and see what Bonds they focus on.
Remember that it’s a comic book, you can really do whatever you want with it and if they helped you come up with all that stuff it sounds like they’re invested already so just use the elements you came up with together. Start with conflict right away, then give them some downtime to recover. While they do that figure out what you want to have happen next or foreshadow and use some of your prep – the first two steps to introduce the mastermind and the change they’re trying to force on the world. See what happens, react to the powers and adapt as necessary.
If you’re really worried make sure you have the EIC sheet printed out and in front of you and know when you should be making moves, and just keep giving the players stuff they have to react to.
Have the prep sheet printed and filled in with the stuff you came up with for organizations and their instincts and the master mind, their motivation and the first couple steps and you’ll be fine 🙂
Back to this girl´s superhero:
She has this.
Simple: Autoregeneration, self-control (being able to not fear or having better control of her emotions), reading minds.
Difficult: Healing others, Mental Invisibility (being able to dissapear, just because she erased her from his mind), and mind shield (make others resistant to mental attacks)
Borderline: Synchro (Being able to synchronize every power of his teammates to make the best possible attack).
As you can see, she has a support kind of character. In this case, how would you handle Mind shield and healing?
Im sorry for being so intense. I hope this case will be helpful for others that come by, at least ^^ would make me feel a lil better about spamming you like this.
Alright, so that’s not really how the Powers Profile works. In her Powers Summary, on the back of her sheet she can list things like regeneration, empathy, psychic, whatever she wants, but her Powers Profile is for specific things – if you take a look at the pre-gens available, or the example Powers Profile I listed earlier you can see the difference.
A Powers Profile lists specific actions, not broad, sweeping abilities. For an example healer, I wrote these:
Simple – Mend minor cuts and bruises, stop bleeding.
Difficult – Transfer or take on any damage my target has taken to myself.
Possible – To reroute or block the neurons of the brain so that the target no longer feels any pain.
Impossible – Bring someone back from the dead.
Notice how they are very specific. That’s because the things in the Powers Profile are the only thing they’ve learned and are comfortable doing without having to Push for it. So she’ll have to retool her profile to account for specific actions rather than general abilities. Powers Summary is the answer to the question “Can you do that?” and Powers Profile is the answer to “How hard is it for you to do that?” and if they have to roll for it, essentially.
So, if she got her hand cut off before and it regenerated or something, she might have in her Profile, under Simple, something like “Regenerate an entire limb after a good night’s sleep”. If she has some experience with controlling herself, she could put “Push all fear out of mind” or something. If she can read minds, she has to be specific in the profile to explain what she’s capable of and has done before, like “read the surface thoughts of anyone I’m touching”, or “tell what someone is thinking when they look into my eyes” or whatever.
For healing others she’ll have to say something “Patch up bleeding cuts in seconds” and such. For mental invisibility she’d have to say something like “erase my presence from the mind of my attacker when they’re not paying attention (or for X time, or something – unless you’re ok with her being super powerful). Again, mental shielding, along with everything else she wants to do has to fall under the Simple/Difficult/Borderline/Impossible scale like everything else I’ve been talking about. “Block a psychic barrage when the target lets me in” or something. Things on the profile represent very specific instances of using the power that they’ve practiced, done before, and so don’t have to Push to do anymore.
The syncro power doesn’t even make sense to me. What does it mean to synchronize powers? She could put something like “Coordinate everyone’s efforts and attacks by speaking into the mind of everyone who will let me” or something? I don’t think that is coordinating powers, so I’m not sure if that’s what she’s going for, but I hope you take my meaning. I hope that clears things up.
Now im having trouble with the difficulties then. Its just about the time or focus needed? Cause i got confused when you talk in the book about limitations (i dont know if it is the right term) set in the fiction. My interpretation of this was like ok, so obviously it should be easier to regenerate from light wounds than to regenerate a limb… Its that the meaning you wanted to express in the game? Im sorry for my english, im spanish and i know that sometimes it could be hard to get what i mean.
My scale would be for example
Simple: heal bruises and stop bleeding on seconds
Difficult: regenerate from deeper cuts and in minutes IF you focus all your energy in a point
Borderline: regenerate from really serious and lethal wounds IF you exhaust yourself and put all of your power on it
Possible: hold sustained lethal damage for minutes and keep walking
Impossibe: resurrecting other people
Did i get it wrong?
Hey, no worries. So, how you justify your powers being simple, difficult, or borderline is up to you – it could be difficult because yeah, it’s regenerating a whole limb instead of a cut, so it takes time, or because it’s more complicated and it requires focus, or more energy, or whatever. Powers themselves don’t need to have limitations necessarily, (like IFs or whatever) but just by where they are placed on the scale you’ll kind of be determining how hard for them it is to do, and the limitations will flow naturally from there. You can ask the player, why is it difficult and not simple for them to do? Does it require using all their ammunition? Can they only use that psychic power so far when they’re focused on a certain memory? Does it exhaust you?
Your scale is not wrong, but most heroes will have multiple powers and can only write so many things in their Powers Profile, so will probably not want to use up all their slots in their Powers Profile for just one power. Because whenever you do something that is not on your Powers Profile you’ll have to roll the dice and you could end up failing, getting hurt, etc, so if your hero there ever wanted to do anything other than regenerate they’d have to Push for it. However, if a characters wants to they can totally do that, and the profile you wrote would be fine (except maybe the possible one, but that just needs further clarification really.
As for limitations, that is just about how well a character fits in and gets along with normal people. It’s important because it’ll show how normal people react to them and stuff, but also because it determines how many things a player can write down in their Powers Profile. Does that help?
So with this application, lets say, one of my players that had one power listed as “Chi control”, on “Power profile” having listed something like “Feather Jump”, meaning this wuxia thing about jumping over falling branches or stones, slow the falling, and that stuff, each one of that actions i said about feather jump would be the power profile i have to place on Simple/Difficult/Borderline? I think that makes a HUGE list of applications on, lets say, 3rd or 4th session, isnt it?
They only add to it to their list if they get a 10+ on their Push. But yes, the Powers Profile can get pretty long!