Most "adventures" "missions" "sessions" involve a short story that can (hopefully) be completed within one session. Sometimes they're episodic like watching Futurama, sometimes there are over-arcing plot threads, like Lost, and sometimes they are continuous adventuring like True Blood.
Today, let's look at the basic types of missions and how they relate to your superhero campaign.
Stealth- This is a problem in every system. The stealth mission relies on the party infiltrating an area without getting caught, and usually (but not always) requires them to complete some objective without anyone being aware that they were there. More often, stealth is used to get in to a location, and combat blazing on the way out is not a big deal.
The problem with stealth missions in all game systems is that it's very weakest link oriented. In combat, the barbarian can carry the rest of the group. In negotiations, the charismatic character can speak for everyone. With stealth, the worst stealth roll can ruin it for everybody, unless the mission is very carefully orchestrated or planned. Otherwise you end up forcing the stealth character to solo large parts (or all) of the mission.
Mutants and masterminds offers additional challenges. First, it's easy to make a character nigh undetectable with concealment effects. The only way to beat those effects is with detection powers which effectively makes stealth impossible. Then there's esp and teleportation which makes sneaking around almost useless anyway.
So where does stealth fit into your campaign?
- The Party must aid another hero without him realizing it.
This option allows broken stealth to be just fine while providing a level of challenge also as they must be unobtrusive with their success as well as their failures.
- The party must perform counter-stealth guard duty
This way you can use stealth on the enemies and let the party try to find him. They either find him or they don't and have appropriate consequences.
- The party must use stealth while guarding NPCs
This way the NPC can be the "weakest link" and the party must help them sneak away. Maybe they can be spotted, maybe they can't, but they must make sure the NPC escapes, which they are less likely to have the special powers already on hand to make this easy.
Negoitiation- The "chatty" role playing option. In this scenario the party must talk to the NPCs. Maybe they must negotiate a peace treaty, maybe they must learn secret information, or get the NPC to give away their computer password or room key, maybe they're trying to discover plot exposition.
In most games, this scenario has some problems. For one, it can sometimes be boring, for two it can (and is) usually soloed by one PC while the others standby and watch. For three, sometimes the "odder" PCs "ruin it" and we need some suspension of disbelief to move forward. (So Bob the orc is still wearing his belt of decapitated human heads while Dave addresses the king?).
Mutants and masterminds offers more challenges. Mind reading, mind control, emotion control, precognition, postcogition, object creation- there are so many powers that can bypass the need to communicate with NPCs. (Copy the key with create object, technopath the computer so you don't need the password, mind read the plot exposition). Perhaps you can argue that circumventing the diplomacy is just as valid a way to complete the mission- and you'd probably be right, but those are things you need to keep in mind if you're going to have a lying grand vizier or corrupt government official going up against a mind reader.
So here are some "negotiation" alternatives
- The party can do it, but isn't sure what to do:
An example I used- a man is killing dragons to use their body parts for medicine. A dragon wants to locate him and kill him. The man, if he learns there are more dragons, will effectively become a dragon serial-killer. The party must decide who to side with and whether to negotiate peace or not. The challenge here is DECIDING the course of action, not taking it.
- The party must negotiate over the phone or on TV or something
This way they can't use the mind reading, mind control, or other such powers.
Investigative- These are the missions where the party comes upon a scene and must decide what happened, and then figure out who the bad guy is before going to apprehend him. Most missions start out with some kind of investigative issue.
In most systems this involves some uses of Search, Tracking, Urban Tracking, Gather Information, Knowledge Checks, or reserach.
In mutants and masterminds, it's often as easy as Postcognition, Mind Reading, Esp-searching, and powered-tracking. It's often not so easy to conceal what happened. (You can see my previous posts on these powers if you want to outright nerf these powers).
Here are some "investigative" alternatives
- The party must create a false trail to throw off other investigators, perhaps leading them into a trap.
- The party is involved with other investigators and must corrupt the investigation in some way
- What you see throug postcognition is deceptive (such as the killer having been mindcontrolled or imitated by a shapeshifter creating false clues).
Combat- Most adventures have heavy combat pieces and most gamebooks of all types of games have very detailed combat rules, feats, and weapon details, and mutants and masterminds is no exceptions. Rather than go into too much detail, since combat is probably the most balanced part of the mutants and masterminds system, I'll just refer you to the breaking power level post, the minion tactics, and the combat complication posts to make combat more interesting.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Broken Tactics
So you want to build a character that's not fair? Or you are afraid your PC might? Here are some broken tactics that I've seen employed in play to watch out for.
Perception Power + ESP- So you can blast people from anywhere? How about perception+attack teleport- you just start teleporting item directly to you from anywhere. You can sit home in the saftey of your bathtub closing your eyes and blasting supervillains.
How to Defeat:Well there's obscurement, that's a big one. You can counter the esp if you're aware of it. The nasty guys will look back through your esp and target you back, or you can be a medusa or something where viewing your face causes the viewer to turn to stone.
Superspeed+Move by attack: I move 500 miles, attack the villain, and continue to move 500 miles away. I am the speedster and I can totally do something crazy like that.
How to defeat: Ready an action to attack/trip/grapple/blast/dodge, or throw down some entangling glue.
Invisible- Not just invisible, invisible to all senses, even smell, ultrasound, hearing, infrared vision, etc. Add incoporeal for extra pain. Now you can spam them and they can't do anything about it.
How to defeat: Detect powers mainly. for non-incoporeal there's smoke, sprinkler systems, and other ways to detect the invisible, or you can just obscure the area and put you on equal footing.
Teleporter- I teleport to (home/another dimension) and heal myself, then teleport back into battle. I teleport in- blast, then extra effort to teleport out again. Another pain in the ass.
How to defeat: readied actions, teleport nullifys, or just leaving the area while the guy's gone so he doesn't know where you went. Some ability to trace teleport is nice too, so they can just follow you.
Ricochet + Range- I literally had a PC who shot the pope by ricocheting his blast off the moon. He targetted using a television showing the pope's speech. 50% miss chance? worth it. for the record- the party still almost lost that fight
How to defeat: redirect, a good dodge roll. or just hiding.
Hide in the Wall- With incoporeal or phasing the PC hides in the wall/floor/ceiling/desk and attacks the enemy while wearing a shield of object to protect him.
How to defeat: a high strengh guy who smashes the item out of the way, a similar power to phase in and get him, flying away from objects you can hide in, or readied actions, or nullify him so he's stuck in there.
Super-regenerator- A quite common one, the PC regenerates all damage, even "incurable" at a rate so quickly that he is indestructable- even regenerates from death in one round. They can usually stand from prone as a free action.
How to defeat: Entomb them in a created object, drown them, grapple/snare them, transform them into something else (like a rock), remove his limbs with attack anotomical separation.
Effort Battery- Use empathic healing to heal the fatigue of your team members- but make it an area effect. While each PC is fatigued or exhaused, you can heal 5 people at once, gain 10 fatigue conditions (which is the same as taking 3 fatigue conditions) and pass out. Then with a DC 20 heal check you can be woken back up to do it again. How will you wake back up? Well, one guy can use extra effort to get to you and heal you, while the rest of the party takes double extra effort actions.
How to defeat: Kill that man, keep him away from the party, use a fatigue power on him so he passes out early. Power use to force him to use it on you instead.
Not Here- I'm always astral, I'm in another dimension looking in, or whatever, but I can still blast you, or possess you or whatever, while being completely inperceptable and undefeatable by you. If you defeat me, I just go back to my body and come back next round.
How to defeat Find the prime body, trap him in a body if he's possessing, shoot him back with interdimensional power (extra effort!), have someone walk into his home dimension.
The Magic Device: I have a wand(device) or ring (device). For 4 power points I gain 5 in talents. I purchase with it the Magic power (costs 2 points, grants 2 points worth of powers). Then I buy down the device with flaws and the magic with flaws.
So I have a magic wand (costs 3 points) with the flaw (uses somatic componants) and distracting (lose dodge to AC) So I get 5 points worth of powers for every 1 point I spend.
I buy the power MAGIC with the flaw (with the limited, only works when I speak). So for every 1 point of MAGIC I buy, I get 2 points worth of powers.
I spend 5 points on my device. This gives my 25 points to spend.
25 on the magic power, which gives me 50 points worth of powers.
I then put flaws on those powers to make them even cheaper.
This allows you to break the maximum of 1 rank : 5 ranks with flaws, down to 1 rank : 5 for device (which gives you 25 via the device power) to 1:5 with magic (which gives you 2 per rank, so 1:10) and then each power inside 1:5.
1 rank of device here gives 25 points to spend on magic, 125 points to spend on powers within magic, and 625 ranks worth of powers inside it.
Then you can just buy alternate powers if you want too.
How to defeat: Disarm that guy, break his device, have it taken, or tell him to make a new character.
Nested Alternate Powers: Another one like magic device.
I have mind control costing me a total of 50 points.
I have an alternate power (costing me one point). I buy a 48 point power with 1 point of alternate power. I then get a 47 point power with 1 point to alternate power, I then get a 46 point power with 1 point of alternate power).
You end up with a very specific power array that ends up being very cheap, since you only actually pay for the alternate power feat once, as each other alternate power feat is paid with the auto points from the new power you got cheaper.
How to defeat: You really can't- it's a cheap way to save points on buying alterate powers. Sure, each one must be 1 point cheaper, but you start adding flaws (or making it cheap powers like super senses) and it won't matter.
Megaboost: Do you know it's cheaper to buy boost-all traits and have it up all the time with fades than it is to buy all the skills and stats? In fact, if you buy your stats DOWN to 1, you can boost them up even cheaper with those bonus build points you got. Nullify got you down? Make it innate!
How about this one- buy a rank 1 power with all the fun extras, then boost it up with a cheap, low duration boost. Now you've got powers you can't possibly afford, all the time.
How to defeat: "Evil Boost" the enemy boosts the hero with power feat "innate", or boosts just one trait to the limit so the PC is not a valid target for his own boost. Take that hard power level limits!
Nested Mimic: So you can only mimic 5 people's powers at once? Easy. Make your mimic "affects others", give 5 people that power, then mimic it back from them. Now your 5 "slots" are used with 5 mimic abilities, each which can hold 5 people's powers- 25 total people's powers. (see where this is going?)
Or boost your power to "affects others". Let your ally mimic all your powers as one set, then mimic it back to turn 5 people's power into 1 person's powers! (There's always a loophole)
How to defeat: Kill that mimic. Mimic him back. Nullify the mimic so he loses all nested powers and has to start all over again. See my troublesome power entry.
Perception Power + ESP- So you can blast people from anywhere? How about perception+attack teleport- you just start teleporting item directly to you from anywhere. You can sit home in the saftey of your bathtub closing your eyes and blasting supervillains.
How to Defeat:Well there's obscurement, that's a big one. You can counter the esp if you're aware of it. The nasty guys will look back through your esp and target you back, or you can be a medusa or something where viewing your face causes the viewer to turn to stone.
Superspeed+Move by attack: I move 500 miles, attack the villain, and continue to move 500 miles away. I am the speedster and I can totally do something crazy like that.
How to defeat: Ready an action to attack/trip/grapple/blast/dodge, or throw down some entangling glue.
Invisible- Not just invisible, invisible to all senses, even smell, ultrasound, hearing, infrared vision, etc. Add incoporeal for extra pain. Now you can spam them and they can't do anything about it.
How to defeat: Detect powers mainly. for non-incoporeal there's smoke, sprinkler systems, and other ways to detect the invisible, or you can just obscure the area and put you on equal footing.
Teleporter- I teleport to (home/another dimension) and heal myself, then teleport back into battle. I teleport in- blast, then extra effort to teleport out again. Another pain in the ass.
How to defeat: readied actions, teleport nullifys, or just leaving the area while the guy's gone so he doesn't know where you went. Some ability to trace teleport is nice too, so they can just follow you.
Ricochet + Range- I literally had a PC who shot the pope by ricocheting his blast off the moon. He targetted using a television showing the pope's speech. 50% miss chance? worth it. for the record- the party still almost lost that fight
How to defeat: redirect, a good dodge roll. or just hiding.
Hide in the Wall- With incoporeal or phasing the PC hides in the wall/floor/ceiling/desk and attacks the enemy while wearing a shield of object to protect him.
How to defeat: a high strengh guy who smashes the item out of the way, a similar power to phase in and get him, flying away from objects you can hide in, or readied actions, or nullify him so he's stuck in there.
Super-regenerator- A quite common one, the PC regenerates all damage, even "incurable" at a rate so quickly that he is indestructable- even regenerates from death in one round. They can usually stand from prone as a free action.
How to defeat: Entomb them in a created object, drown them, grapple/snare them, transform them into something else (like a rock), remove his limbs with attack anotomical separation.
Effort Battery- Use empathic healing to heal the fatigue of your team members- but make it an area effect. While each PC is fatigued or exhaused, you can heal 5 people at once, gain 10 fatigue conditions (which is the same as taking 3 fatigue conditions) and pass out. Then with a DC 20 heal check you can be woken back up to do it again. How will you wake back up? Well, one guy can use extra effort to get to you and heal you, while the rest of the party takes double extra effort actions.
How to defeat: Kill that man, keep him away from the party, use a fatigue power on him so he passes out early. Power use to force him to use it on you instead.
Not Here- I'm always astral, I'm in another dimension looking in, or whatever, but I can still blast you, or possess you or whatever, while being completely inperceptable and undefeatable by you. If you defeat me, I just go back to my body and come back next round.
How to defeat Find the prime body, trap him in a body if he's possessing, shoot him back with interdimensional power (extra effort!), have someone walk into his home dimension.
The Magic Device: I have a wand(device) or ring (device). For 4 power points I gain 5 in talents. I purchase with it the Magic power (costs 2 points, grants 2 points worth of powers). Then I buy down the device with flaws and the magic with flaws.
So I have a magic wand (costs 3 points) with the flaw (uses somatic componants) and distracting (lose dodge to AC) So I get 5 points worth of powers for every 1 point I spend.
I buy the power MAGIC with the flaw (with the limited, only works when I speak). So for every 1 point of MAGIC I buy, I get 2 points worth of powers.
I spend 5 points on my device. This gives my 25 points to spend.
25 on the magic power, which gives me 50 points worth of powers.
I then put flaws on those powers to make them even cheaper.
This allows you to break the maximum of 1 rank : 5 ranks with flaws, down to 1 rank : 5 for device (which gives you 25 via the device power) to 1:5 with magic (which gives you 2 per rank, so 1:10) and then each power inside 1:5.
1 rank of device here gives 25 points to spend on magic, 125 points to spend on powers within magic, and 625 ranks worth of powers inside it.
Then you can just buy alternate powers if you want too.
How to defeat: Disarm that guy, break his device, have it taken, or tell him to make a new character.
Nested Alternate Powers: Another one like magic device.
I have mind control costing me a total of 50 points.
I have an alternate power (costing me one point). I buy a 48 point power with 1 point of alternate power. I then get a 47 point power with 1 point to alternate power, I then get a 46 point power with 1 point of alternate power).
You end up with a very specific power array that ends up being very cheap, since you only actually pay for the alternate power feat once, as each other alternate power feat is paid with the auto points from the new power you got cheaper.
How to defeat: You really can't- it's a cheap way to save points on buying alterate powers. Sure, each one must be 1 point cheaper, but you start adding flaws (or making it cheap powers like super senses) and it won't matter.
Megaboost: Do you know it's cheaper to buy boost-all traits and have it up all the time with fades than it is to buy all the skills and stats? In fact, if you buy your stats DOWN to 1, you can boost them up even cheaper with those bonus build points you got. Nullify got you down? Make it innate!
How about this one- buy a rank 1 power with all the fun extras, then boost it up with a cheap, low duration boost. Now you've got powers you can't possibly afford, all the time.
How to defeat: "Evil Boost" the enemy boosts the hero with power feat "innate", or boosts just one trait to the limit so the PC is not a valid target for his own boost. Take that hard power level limits!
Nested Mimic: So you can only mimic 5 people's powers at once? Easy. Make your mimic "affects others", give 5 people that power, then mimic it back from them. Now your 5 "slots" are used with 5 mimic abilities, each which can hold 5 people's powers- 25 total people's powers. (see where this is going?)
Or boost your power to "affects others". Let your ally mimic all your powers as one set, then mimic it back to turn 5 people's power into 1 person's powers! (There's always a loophole)
How to defeat: Kill that mimic. Mimic him back. Nullify the mimic so he loses all nested powers and has to start all over again. See my troublesome power entry.
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