What is a player comes up with a Power profile with Simple: immune to all physical force. I get that power effects are all fictional, but it seems that it’s possible to define world-destroying powers as simple. Am I missing something?
What is a player comes up with a Power profile with Simple: immune to all physical force.
What is a player comes up with a Power profile with Simple: immune to all physical force.
I don’t think so. But you might have a hard time convincing the group that the character with that power isn’t going to be pretty lame and uninteresting.
The GM would be well within their rights to either disallow it, or have them narrow that power down.
A ridiculous ability is an open invitation for the EIC to add in a ridiculous drawback and/or limitation.
It is ok as long as you discuss weaknesses and challenges with the EiC.
“If the EIC does not know how to put your hero in danger on a regular basis then you may need to rethink your character concept or help your EIC out with finding ways to do so.”
Thanks for the answers!
Gas, radiation, energy attacks, magic, mental powers, etc. Too easy.
What happens when a character executes an ability in their “Possible” category? Do they move it to Borderline?
Alan Barclay I’d say no, as an EIC you’ve got to be aware of power creep. Possible doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it means you can’t do it easily. If they earn enough Achievements to redefine Possible fine, but don’t give away the store.
Thanks. I think I’d like a better idea of the narrative requiremens for Simple, Difficult, Borderline, and Possible. As I read it, Simple is something that can be done as easy as I might walk across a room — no challenge, no leaving myself open. Difficult means you might have to leave yourself open or take a moment to gather strength. Borderline would requre a lot of narrative build up while Possible, even more so. Not sure how to differentiate Borderline and Possible.
Alan Barclay Consider the Push move, players have to roll and accept conditions to do things that aren’t in their Power Profile. Once they’ve added it to the Profile they no longer need to roll to pull off the stunt, but that doesn’t mean that they no longer need to accept conditions for it. Just because someone is capable of doing something doesn’t mean that they want to do it. If you wanna be the Boss then you’ve gotta pay the cost!
Thanks. So a “Possible” power can have conditions but doesn’t require a Push roll.
What are people’s experiences with Advantages? What is the advantage in taking an Advantage? Is there some upside to their nature that balances the downside of being removable?
Alan Barclay An Advantage grants a character a Power that they otherwise wouldn’t have. They also provide a distraction to foes: You act, they try to take away your advantage, and then whether they succeeded or not you act again. You essentially get back-to-back actions against someone that tries to Take Down your Advantage.
William King I’m confused about the mechanics you describe as “You act, they try to take away your advantage, and then whether they succeeded or not you act again.” Can you point me to a page number in the rules where this is explained?
Alan Barclay The Take Down move is described in detail with examples on pages 36-42. If someones move is to Take Away an Advantage from you after you attack them, then clearly they’re not going to harm you that panel. Panel #1 you act, panel #2 they try to take away your advantage (they’ll need a 10+ to both impose a minor condition and take away your advantage. Unlikely to happen), panel #3 you act. The unlikeliness of their rolling a 10+ means that in panels #1 and #3 you’ll probably impose conditions on your opponent while on panel #2 they won’t be able to impose a condition on you. Effectively panel #2 is a lost opportunity for your opponent unless they actually make that 10+ roll or the advantage they take away is crucial to your character.
William King I begin to see that the point of an Advantage is not to have some kind of game balance, but to add narrative complications to the character.
Follow me here and tell me if you agree: I can see that if an NPC’s move (delivered with appropriate fictional justification) is to neutralize a PC’s advantage, that the PC has a round in which they didn’t take a Condition. They are subsequently left without the power provided by the Advantage, which seems like it could well be a bigger downside than having a breather for one move. Eg The Gadgetmaster slaps a system disruption disc on Powersuit Man’s armor triggering it’s automatic protocol for unwrappoing Powersuit Man and packing itself into a suitcase. From the standpoint of bringing some kind of objective out of game balance to the character design, this is a downside, leaving the PC without armor for their next move. As WIP doesn’t spend any effort on such balance elsewhere, I infer that that’s not the point, so I am thinking in the wrong track.
Given that the ability to inflict conditions requires only narraitve justification, rather than some required paid-with-points power, that means the Advantage becomes narrative content rather than actual restriction on PC action. I can buy into that.
Does that make sense?
Alan Barclay Yep.