My friend was speaking of attempting to make a healing type character and I brought up the questing how would one handle healing abilities within world’s in peril?
My friend was speaking of attempting to make a healing type character and I brought up the questing how would one…
My friend was speaking of attempting to make a healing type character and I brought up the questing how would one…
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.
Kyle Simons, you might want to add some examples of healing characters in action into the Worlds in Peril. I was thinking of doing a mystic who could, among other things, heal with a spell. Examples like this help tremendously.
I’m hoping that the final book will have a few iconic archetypes as examples. I find I grok character creation systems better with full examples.