Hi, everyone! This is my first post, so apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but a quick question.
According to the rules, there seems to be a lot of leeway in terms of the Bull’s abilities, as long as they focus on combat rather than utility. What I’m curious about is whether or not an energy blast type of power is too flexible for the playbook.
I was considering making a Bull based partially around Paige Rampling from Progenitor, who has a supremely tough permanent skintight force field and massive energy blasts that are tough to minimize damage.
Interesting question. I often wonder how flexible on the character of powers I should be in Masks. And how far to allow players to push them, using “Unleash your powers” move.
I’m playing a Bull who uses a high-tech battlesuit and combines with other robots to power up, and it hasn’t been a problem for our group. The spirit of the playbook (be gruff, be tough, get in the fight and stay there) can shine through almost any power set, if you try.
Bill Garrett Thanks, sir. Appreciate the input.
Maciej Starzycki It is a very lenient game that way. Given the focus on character and relationships, I think it’s the right move.
I know that, I’m just cautious, as for instance Deliquents powers are very specific and rather limited – and I tend to go with the creators recommendation, assuming they had some kind of concept there (by not putting “or any other power focused on XYZ” on the playbooks).
The first time you play, use the abilities on the playbook. If you want to change it up after that, go for it. Adding/changing abilities is a very common request but the way it is works really well.
That sounds good to me. In fact, you could have everyone with that same power set and the game would play differently for the Bull or Nova Or Outsider.
One thing you may want to note if your switch gives the bull ranged combat is that if you are firing at someone that can’t really hit back then the move you are making isn’t going to be ‘directly engage’. So long as people keep that in mind it should be fine, but I could see someone feeling put out if their Bull keeps having to use other moves if the opponent can’t also shoot energy, use firearms, or throw cars back at them.
The powers don’t matter. My GMs have let me completely alter the powers as long as the playbook matches the basics of what the player wants to do. Hard to put into words…hope that makes sense. For example, I made a character who is a boy made of water who has a Pinoccio complex (i.e. he just wanted to be normal). He is bought using the Transformed playbook because it fits the state of the PC. We just added water powers and called it done.
The suggested powers are prototypical. It’s what the comic books had that the playbooks are based on. Change them as you like.
One of the inspirations for The Bull is Hazmat (according to page 96). Hazmat’s powers are basically nuclear blasts. So I think it’s a safe bet that you can take energy blasts as The Bull’s powers as long as they thematically work as described by the playbook.
So, I didn’t really get a chance to play him, but I had a character who was a bull with ice generation powers. Only he couldn’t really soon or do fancy tricks. Just give himself armor and punch people with ice fists. I think it’s probably important that whatever the bulls powers, that their primary method of engagement is to charge into the thick of things rather than shoot from a distance.
Andrew Matiukas Good point. What I was thinking were two variants on the blast, based on Rampling’s powerset: a smaller, short range green flash, comparable to a scattergun, and a massive green wave that can’t be choked back much.
My campaign features a Bull with fire-powers. She also is strong and smashes things, but her fighting skills manifest as setting her hands and feet on fire—and she’s learning to do other things with her fire powers when she Unleashes her Powers. It’s working very well. The Bull attitude is there even with the dip into powers that are not purely physical.