Adventure Making Checklist

Adventure Building Checklist:

Here are a list of things to fill out about your mission either as you’re writing it, or after you’re finished, to make sure that it is a balance mission and that it makes sense.

What is the PC’s motivation for this mission?

Is it fortune and glory? Does it provide a mcguffin for a greater plot? Is the girlfriend kidnapped?

Deeper than the PC’s motivation, is the PC’s PERSONAL motivation. Why should I complete this mission and not just tell the super police/other superhero team/etc about this. If the world’s going to be destroyed, every other superhero team should be involved as a helper to complete this mission. If my girlfriend is kidnapped, I might want to be there myself.

Ideally this is an easier part, because hopefully the PCs have built superheroes who WANT to go on missions to save innocent people, but see Rule 2: The PCs will always do what you don’t expect. Sometimes the players will just want the police to handle this. If so, you’ve not properly motivated them.

If they need to save people, you need to make sure the people that they care about the potential victim. If Dr Wily kidnapped Mr. Potter from It’s a wonderful life, then PCs will only care if they are interested in monetary reward. Some PCs may think the world is better without Mr. Potter. I’ve had the PCs asked by another hero team to rescue one of their members, but they didn’t like the guy, so they were not interested in the mission at all.

What is the Villain’s motivation for this caper?

Equally important! First of all, is this something the bad guy needs to take care of personally, or can he send minions/sidekicks/etc? Second, why is it so important that he needs to risk his safety and freedom over it?

If he’s crazy, out of control, mind controlled- then fine. If he’s out for wealth, then he’d better be very sure he’ll get away without any trouble, or the payoff needs to be WAY bigger than the risk. If he needs diamonds to save his wife (like Mr. Freeze) then is there a better/easier/ less risky source of diamonds? Is there an alternate power supply?

Along with this- at what point does the villain call it quits? Does he abandon the mission as soon as the PCs are on the case, and play it safe? Does he call it quits as soon as the PCs confront him? Does he quit once it’s clear he’s losing the battle? Or does he fight to the death? Provide a reason WHY he goes to the extreme he’s going to go to.

If he is willing to escape, make sure you think about how he will escape. Teleporting is easy enough, but many PCs build fast characters, or ones who can track. Be ready to make the escape difficult, especially if the PCs are faster than jets or can TK lift cars.

What are the Stakes?

This goes into character motivation, but it’s also important to determine what will happen if the villain succeeds or fails. Will the world explode? Will he have 1 of the 10 artifacts he needs for some plan? Will the world turn purple? If the stakes aren’t high enough, the players may not be interested.

What powers/skills/feats or combination of above will short circuit the entire mission?

Just need to think about it. If the villain is pretending to help the party the whole time, then a PC that mind reads and/or has high sense motive will catch this early. High notice will break disguises. Many super-senses bypass concealment,  or detect powers, which can expose secrets.

Postcognition, object reading, precognition, x-ray vision, ESP-  are a few Investigation breaking powers.

Mind control, emotion control, fascinate- can be a few Social breaking powers.

Concealment (especially all senses), super movements (like phasing)- can break Stealth missions

It’s OK if a power can break the mission (or part of it)- just be aware of it so you’re not surprised later.

Let’s talk about what BREAKING a mission means- by the way. If the party is meant to stealth into some place, then concealment doesn’t break the mission- it accomplishes the mission. By contrast- if the players are meant to negotiate for hostages, and you have a high level of resistance to stop them from breaking in, concealment might mean they can walk right past a thousand soldiers and get the prisoners that way. Can be good, can be bad- but could be considered BREAKING the mission.

How does this impact campaign lore?

An odd question, but one to be considered. Previously used NPCs may have their characters deepened. You may have introduced a new villain or an organization, or you may have attached a name and face to a mayor or president.

If the mission is related to time travel, then you’re setting up your time travel “rules” in this mission- and future missions should keep to the same lore. If the mission is about angels, then you’re establishing angels and possibly heaven/religion, etc. If Zeus shows up, then you’re establish (at least in part) the validity of the greek religion.

Along with this question, ask if you’re altering or contradicting (or validating) previously established lore.

The relationship of the party with NPCs, NPCs with each other, or various power groups with each other are all part of the lore you establish with your missions and should be considered.

How difficult is this mission? What skills are REQUIRED to complete the mission?

A mission might require some skills. For example, if you need to find out who killed the person in Apt 22B, you might require EITHER investigation, OR search, OR postcognition, OR gather information- but if the PCs don’t have any of those skills, will they automatically fail the mission?

Each mission should have at least 2-3 ways to complete it “successfully”. (In quotes, because some paths can be easier, more successful, or more obvious than others). Remember Rule 2: The PCs will not do what you expect. They may not want to storm the castle (or be unable to).

So, let’s say the mission is to rescue the princess from the dragon. Obviously, fighting the dragon is an option. Option 2 may involve stealth and rescuing the princess without alerting the dragon, which may be harder or easier than 1. Option 3 might be discovering that the dragon is afraid of eels, and obtaining an eel to frighten away the dragon- much easier to accomplish, but very non-obvious and might be hard to discover this option even exists. Option 4 might be convincing the dragon to trade the princess for something else. The players may discover new ways you didn’t think of, but at least there are 4 ways to succeed. Option 1 is suited to combat characters, 2 to stealth characters, and 3 to investigative characters, and 4 to social characters- but players might not know option 2 of them are even viable without making some kind of skill rolls. See the GM cruelty scale for how obvious you want to make the options.

What are the PC’s choices during this mission?

Besides succeed or fail, take the mission or don’t take the mission- what are the PC’s actual choices? Multiple ways to solve the mission indicate a choice. Maybe they can choose to side with one of two factions to help solve the mission. The choices should have consequences later (not necessarily bad, but the choices should matter- see how it impacts lore).

If the PCs have no choice but to go along the mission, you’re railroading them. Perhaps offer a moral,  or tactical choice. (Such as solving the mission quickly or taking on extra mission criteria to make it harder). For example: A noble wants you to save his daughter, but will pay extra if the kidnappers are brought alive to him to do with as he sees fit. A moral, as well as a tactical choice, as bringing him live kidnappers changes your approach to the problem.

What is the players REWARD?

Besides power points. Do they get bonus skill points/feats, Fame? Money? A new hideout? There should be some kind of ultimate reward each time, and it need not always be pure mechanical. A new contact/friend is a great one.

Hopefully this will help a GM while creating missions. 

GM Cruelty Scale

This was mostly taken from the Interactive Fiction Cruelty Scale, but I thought something to apply to GMs would make sense. When creating a campaign, you should declare where you sit on the scale. There is no "right" answer, but each player will likely have a preference as far as what kind of campaign they want to play in. Thoughts? Let me know in the comments.

·         Tutorial- The party cannot fail. This is either because an NPC travelling with the party will solve all the challenges, or because dues es machina will save the party to prevent failure. NPCs and the world at large will largely ignore ridiculous things the PCs do. (A necromancer PC with undead followers who were once townsfolk will get no more than odd looks or comments from NPCs).  Characters will not die in combat because they will be resurrected/healed by an NPC or NPCs will suddenly start missing characters, or spread their attacks up so that characters cannot/will not be killed. (NPCs may all target the regenerator for instance, or use ineffectual attacks).

·         Merciful- The party cannot fail the mission, except by dying in combat. Combats are not designed to kill party members, but critical failures may cause characters to die. NPCs will stop attacking characters who are unconscious, even if they are evil killer NPCs. TPKs will generally be avoided by dues es machina or NPCs.  If the party does fall, they will be captured and allowed to escape, either by NPCs or other players. A mission the party is about to fail will become easier or solved by NPCs. NPCs will ignore any weirdness for party members, though there may be an upper limit to this. (People will still not believe in magic despite seeing a flying rapist fly off with a possessed succubus whilst throwing fireballs, but there will be a reason given as to why). Characters who are purposefully disruptive may have trouble with NPCs. (A demon walking around in the church is okay, but not with a bunch of mind controlled thralls.)

·         Polite- It is possible to fail missions if the characters are complete idiots, but each mission will have 3-4 ways of success, custom built to the skills of each team member, so the players will never not have one of the ways at their disposal. If PCs don’t show up, and NPC with that skill will be made available. Combat will be difficult, but usually not deadly. NPCs will react to ridiculous characters, though they will generally be understanding and willing to work with people they don’t like. TPKs are possible but very unlikely. NPCs are available to solve the missions if the PCs ask them to and are willing to give up a portion (or all) of the mission rewards.

·         Tough- Missions are possible if the PCs behave intelligently, though can potentially be failed if the PCs miss a vital clue or act suboptimally. A mission will generally have 2-3 ways to succeed, but those ways may not be immediately apparent and may require skill rolls to identify those ways. Combat may be deadly, though if handled appropriately may be easy (there may be ways to bypass or make combats easy- though those means will need to be discovered and may not be apparent). Character death is possible but most combats do not include character death unless the party is acting sub-optimally. TPKs are possible but rare. NPCs will often have pre-written goals/motive/prejudices which may make it difficult to play characters that are not the norm (such as metahumans, females, elves, etc). Character choices will have far reaching consequences, both positive and negative, based on how they interact with NPCs.

·         Nasty- Missions will generally end with the mission parameters met, though complete success will be difficult to obtain, and will require the PCs to work intelligently and/or together, or use resources to accomplish. There will usually be 1-2 ways to complete a mission, and those ways will be difficult to accomplish, as well as sometimes be non-obvious. Characters are not expected to always get 100% completion. Combats are deadly and difficult, and the players must actively avoid TPKs, though they will be easily avoided if the party makes effort. NPCs will not be assumed to be helpful to the players, and there are generally some level of obstacle to most interactions- any NPC you want help from may have a side mission or need a diplomacy check rather than starting helpful. Villians will act intelligently/efficiently. Unconscious characters will still be targeted by villains who wish to kill the party, especially if a healer is present. Characters will find consequences for virtually all their actions, positive or negative, even if it’s not clear. Characters will have to make choices frequently without having all the information.

·         Cruel- Missions are very difficult to complete, either because they require so many steps that the whole campaign is trying to overcome this one mission, or because the challenge rating is so high that only via super rolls, or especially clever play can it be defeated. The missions are generally challenges, so completing the mission may not be necessary to continuing the campaign. NPCs are generally non-helpful, either because they’re weaker than the PCs and have nothing to offer, or because the PCs are generally distrusted by the world, or because every NPC requires special handling to get help out of. TPKs are common. Players need to make their characters together and all show up because the mission won’t be adjusted for lack of players. NPCs helpers may be available, but they will come with obstacles as well as assistance. Characters will find that all their actions have consequences and that they are generally negative. Do not expect that familiars, animal companions, houses, businesses etc to survive unless they are in your sight at all time, and sometimes not even then. Usually your immediate equipment is safe from GM theft, but not always. Players may have to go to ridiculous lengths to defeat enemies, as the enemies are made to be as smart and powerfull as the player with the same genre savvy player creation thoughts. (Half red dragon trolls with acid immunity, for example).

·         Evil- These are generally considered one-offs or similar because everything the characters touch either explode or attack you. The tomb of horrors is a great example, the Gygax setup. Every NPC is secretly out to betray you, or use you, and the PCs are often pitted against each other directly and on purpose. The missions are so difficult you are not intended to win: winning means you literally beat the GM at his own game by making characters that he could not destroy with his pre-written module. TPKs happen more than surviving the mission does (though TPK may not mean death- players may be transformed, teleported away, have all their stuff stolen, dropped down to 1^st level, or any means of ridiculousness). PCs will generally be at massively different power levels due to character replacement or XP rules, and critical hit/fumble charts themselves cause massive turnover. Characters who do not die will have extremely powerful magical items, but also likely be maimed in some way (such as missing arms/legs/or being cursed by dark gods). The party constantly meets characters more powerful than them and must often tread lightly in an attempt to sell the NPC on not killing them.

Things the Players Are No Longer Allowed to Do

This is a partially funny list- but it's should give a GM things to think about when approving characters. These are all real-world examples from my games.

• Players can not attack anywhere on the earth by ricocheting blasts off the moon.
• Players can not hide in other dimensions while blasting enemies in this one.
• Players can not disintegrate Pluto or other planets.
• One player should not solo-attack any major group, even if they don't have powers. This includes the Yakuza or any national government.
• Players should not abuse time travel plots to undermine previous campaign history and paradox shut-down the campaign.
• Players should not attempt to brutally destroy Disneyland with telekinetic powers, even if it looks like they might be the bad guy.
• Players should not buy the 1 point immunity: Immunity to [insert villain's name here]'s powers.
• Players cannot put innate on teleportation.
• Players cannot make character who's "niche" is boosting all their rank 1 powers or skills with a single massive boost power.
• Player's alternate powers should legitimately stem from the primary power. Example: Teleportation is not a good alternate power of mind control.
• Players should not make characters who's goals are evil: this includes players who worship evil demons, intelligent apes who want to destroy humanity, characters who's primary motive is the death of another PC, and Yakuza Crime Bosses.
• Players should not make characters who are clones of Celebrities. This includes Jesus and Good Hitler.
• "Fuck Earth, let's go live on another dimension" is not a valid response to anything.
• "Fuck Earth, let's go live on an alternate earth where this event isn't happening" is also not a valid response to anything.
• When a power is banned, that ban extends to other powers which have the exact same effect, even if the framing is different. If postcognition is banned, using communicate:objects to emulate postcognition is also banned.
• "This is not my problem" is not an appropriate response for Super Heroes.
• "This is above my pay grade" is not an appropriate response for Super Heroes. (Rorschach stood up to Dr. Manhattan after all- even if he DID lose).
• Postcognition is not as accurate as actual time travel- no pause, rewind, etc.
• Players cannot use "precious metals" as the only item that blocks X-ray vision, and then spend their time collecting precious metals.
• Players cannot buy off their weaknesses immediately after they become relevant.
• Player's cannot open teleportation portals on the autobahn so that cars crash into the villain. Teleportation portals to the sun also create bad effects for the planet.
• Players cannot open teleportation portals that are restricted to only specific items to get around the previous rule- for example, a teleportation portal to the sun, selective to only enemies and not solar radiation and heat to protect this end of the portal.
• Players cannot spend down time using inventor/ritualist/etc to amass a stockpile of every power to use whenever.
• Players can no longer kill John Travolta when he's doing nothing to the party.
• Players can no longer attack the pope just because he's around.
• Players can not come to a special session with one other player just to arrange that player's death.
• Players cannot stretch all believability and change character's personality so that the character can learn something the player is already aware of and act on things he shouldn't know.
• Players cannot ricochet a blast off the moon to hit someone on the other side of the world.  

Just a bit, but as you GM you see those power gamers trying to go all "mechanics first" on you. Thought a humorous post on some of the goofy things that players have done in the past would prepare a new GM on what to expect.

Building Your World

Below are some steps for the first timer GMs based on issue's I've had and seen while playing and running. Hopefully it helps.

1) Make Character Creation Rules:
Don't let one guy play Superman next to Mr. Furious. Have group character creation sessions when possible. It's important for not only having characters not overlap each other, but also to make sure some characters aren't all-powerful compared to others.

I had one session where I played a thief who would phase through doors, teleport objects out of people's hands, and get away. Another player had a thief who had massive stealth and open lock type skills. Way too much overlap, and mine was just built better because it used powers instead of skills.

In another campaign, my wife played a robot scientist with max knowledge skills, data link, the ability to talk to objects, and a robot sidekick (similar to the metal gear mk ii from MGS4). Another player had a person with max knowledge skills and not much else. Again, way too much overlap.

In a third campaign, one of my players had a mimic who copied everyone's powers, while another was playing a flash style character. Player 1 mimicked the flash powers (and a bunch of others) making that character basically a god while the other character was just trying to keep up. I've literally had superhero plans where it was "Let's all get there and watch Paul win." Not much fun for everyone else.

2) DON'T over make your Campaign World

Can't stress it enough. Too much stuff, and you have no missions. Put in any weird social things the characters need to know about (are there super police? is there a main bad guy we're aware of?) and the rest, develop as the characters get through missions. Tell them what they know when it's relevant. Otherwise you can too easily paint yourself into a corner.

Think about Iron Man 3. Where were the rest of the avengers? We established that the Hulk is staying with Iron Man at the end of the Avengers, and he has contact info on all the rest. No one could help him fight the bad guys?

You can paint yourself in a similar corner if you put in too many details. Why isn't [insert other hero group] handling this? Or you've left no room in your city for a new villain.

Leave it open ended so you have room to grow.

3) Missions should develop through the plot, not be cookie-cutter

Why are they robbing the bank? (How often is THAT one used?)

Have the missions derive from things the characters have already done if possible. If the characters discovered a drug that gives people powers, have that drug make an appearance later, or have new villains trying to uncover that formula.

If the world advances through the player's efforts, they feel more involved in the world. If aliens attack- what happens to their world later? Is the government launching a counter-attack? Even if it's not the player's mission, they might know about it.

Maybe the players have to testify at a trial for the old villain (and that trial might be during another mission to make it a hardship for the players).

4) Know the villain's powers and motives

That should be enough for stories. If your villain is just there to have cool powers, he's not worth it. His motives can create the plot. He should be willing to flee from battles that are going south.

Also, why are people robbing the jewelry store? To have jewelry? Jewelry store robberies don't happen all that much NOW, because the gems can be traced. Mr Freeze stole diamonds to power his devices- that makes sense, but why are millionaire villains stealing anything? Don't have your villains all be Dr. Evil, who makes billions of dollars with his front company but then hijacks the world for millions.

5) Tell the PCs the campaign flavor

Are you going to be dark and sinister like Sin City, or wacky like Aqua Teen hunger force. We've played with superhero teams that model Planet Express, and others that model Alphas. We've also played as literal gods going to high school together. But the PCs need to know the style if they're going to make the correct characters and play correctly. Batman as played by Adam West is way different then Batman from Justice League: War.

6) Right place, right time is not really for this system

The heroes just happen to be at another bank robbery? With teleport, flight, and speed, they can quickly get to any crime that's happening, they don't always have to be present. Think about what obstacles the heroes are likely to get involved in. Do they have police contacts? They might be called to look at a crime scene. Are they illegal vigilantes? They might get their leads from police scanner or a precog. Superheroes tend to be reactive as it is- but proactive enough to hunt down villains "just because", they don't need to be further reactive to have to solve crimes just because it's happening while they're present.

7) Mention other happenings in the world

For every crime the superheroes thwart, there should be another crime somewhere in the world that another superhero team thwarted, and the heroes can hear about. That way they don't feel like they're the only ones stopping the world from falling apart. If they ARE the only thing, then maybe some police get lucky and bust a super villain by accident or something.

Also, this isn't Elder Scrolls. In elder scrolls oblivion gates don't open until you get to Kvatch, and Dragons don't come back until you kill the first one by Whiterun. In an open RP system, things happen behind the players backs sometimes. The crime they stop means that another crime didn't have their attention. Sometimes you can have multiple happenings and make them choose what to stop.

8) What is failure?

Death isn't failure- death means they need to regenerate or resurrect, and the villain got away. The villain getting away isn't failure- they just need to chase them. Every failure should create new obstacles. Sometimes the players can blow something big: the bomb goes off, the hostages die- but it's not a video game- the consequences happen and the game continues. Give them hero points and other opportunities to get back at the villain, but the best stories aren't the ones where the heroes always win. Final Fantasy 6 has Kefka wreck the planet, and may be the best final fantasy story of them all.

This isn't a "trophy" or "achievement" game- players and GMs alike should understand that. You can make your character godlike very easily- it's not like D&D where it's about getting that +5 holy avenger, this is about telling the story and having the heroes overcome obstacles. Mechanical development is secondary to story development. Have multiple ways for the heroes to WIN, but it's really not possible for the heroes to LOSE- since losing just introduces more obstacles.


Hopefully this helps in creating your campaign world. Feel free to reply with any questions or advice of your own.

Druidic Aspects

In my current campaign, the heroes are going up against a Druidic Based Enemy. So I've included a list of "aspects" that can be invoked for druidic enemies.

Magical Plants:

• Lichenthropes (like werewolves- but as plants)
• Moly (from the Iliad- protects you from magic)
• Four Leaf Clovers (grants the luck power or second chance feats)
• Petrification Acorns (anyone else remember Willow?)
• Rakovnik (mystical plants said to open hidden doors and find hidden things)
• Garlic/Wolfsbane/Sunflowers/Blood Fungus- for protection against or control of Werewolves and/or Vampires
• Mind-Controlling mushroom spores
• Drug Plants- "Sleep" poppies.

Druidic Powers:

• Tree Stride (teleport via medium- plants)
• Weather Control
• Summon / Animal Control / Animate Plants (swarms of bees are a nice one)
• Elemental Blasts/Control
• Shapeshifting
• Animal Companions
• Reincarnation

Missions:

• The Druid is using mind-controlling spores to get people to attack each other to weed down the population.
• The Druid is infecting people with Vampirism (which he can defend against with his garlic plants and "Sun"flowers, in an attempt to create a predator greater than Man who will not harm the plants and animal life (and is easily killed in the sun)
• The druid is granting sentience to livestock (or zoo animals), who rebel against their captors. Perhaps later he does the same against plant crops.
• By the way- if you want to eat while killing nothing, you're on Honey, Milk, Nuts, Eggs, and Fruits.
• The druid is turning people into plant-creatures: Lichenthropes.

Weather Conditions

The M&M Handbook does a good job talking about Extreme Heat/Cold, Various Levels of Gravity, and Atmospheric Conditions (including Vacuum). But what about your other weather Effects?

NATURAL WEATHER:

Winds: Winds can range from negligible to hurricane force. They interfere with your ability to move around, disburse gasses, and can even knock you over.

Wind Force	Wind Speed	Ranged Attacks	STR DC
Light	10 mph		-
Moderate	20 mph		-
Strong	30 mph	-2/-	0
Severe	50 mph	-4/-	5
Windstorm	75 mph	impossible/-2	10
Hurricane	175 mph	impossible/-4	15
Tornado	300 mph	impossible/impossible	20

Ranged Attacks- Penalty for making ranged attacks with physical weapons, including bows, guns, go in the first column. The second number is the penalty for using energy weapons such as blasts or ray guns. Wind generally doesn't affect these but as the speeds increase the battering of the wind against yourself and body makes it difficult to see or aim such weapons.

STR DC: The DC to move through the wind for a medium creature. Get -4 to your check for each size below medium and +4 to each size above medium. Pass the check to move at 1/2 speed against the wind. Fail and you are checked, unable to make forward movement. Fail by 5 or more and you are knocked prone by the force of the wind. Fail by 10 or more and you are blown away by the force of the wind. Flying creatures are automatically treated as if they failed by 1 step further, and must succeed by 5 or more to make any forward progress. Gaseous creatures would automatically fail the save with the worst possible result regardless of size. Incorporeal creatures would not be affected.

The noise of the winds creates a penalty to sound based and smell based perception checks equal to the strength DC.

On top of the strength of the wind, winds of strong or more can cause flying debris. Strong would include papers and other light objects, where tornadoes could include cars or creatures. Every round spend with flying debris would impose a penalty on visual perception checks equal to the strength DC of the wind- which may make perception attacks difficult. It would also cause damage to those caught within- PL equal to the STR DC (half damage with a reflex save at same PL)- nonlethal damage.

Instead of flying debris, there may be a dust or water involved, which makes the same perception penalties, but no direct damage in the winds.

Precipitation

Rain or Snow is interesting as background. Once it becomes severe, it can cause further problems.

Heavy Rain can cause a penalty to all perception checks as it's loud, obscures vision, and washes away scent.

Precipitation	Perception
Light	0
Moderate	-2
Strong	-4
Severe	-8
Monsoon	-10
Downpour	-15

In addition, rain and snow can cause ground effects from floods or snow-cover, and usually accompany winds. Snow usually accompanies low temperature penalties. Freezing rain or ice storms are rain effects with extreme low temperatures and probably cause ice effects on the ground. They can also accompany darkness quite well.

Hail: Hail is another weather event- treat it as a damaging aura, setting the PL based on the severity of the hail, with damage checks ranging to every minute to every round depending on the severity of the hail.

Fog: Fog usually has no wind, and acts simply as a physical obscurement effect for visual. Thick fogs give partial concealment within 5' and full concealment beyond that.  If it's a light fog, it probably just imposes a -5 penalty to perception checks and gives partial concealment to people within 30', full beyond that.

Thunder: Random thunder during rain can create a temporary audible obscure effect, and cause sound based powers a chance to fail (if the user must hear himself), probably a 20% fail chance, and sense dependent sound effects to fail altogether. Alternately it could cause a -4 to -20 penalty to audio perception checks depending on severity.

Lightning: Lightning can temporarily light the sky against darkness, but if it strikes a character, treat it as a blast attack- base PL 10, but can be more powerful if you wish, reflex half. A character probably has only a 1 in 20 chance of being targeted by lightning, but a character with lots of metal (or made of metal) might increase these odds to 1 in 10 during severe lightning storms.

Ground Conditions

Cluttered: This could include deep snow, deep leaves, going through garbage, floods, or any other surface that won't support your weight and is about leg-deep. Walking would be at normal speed, but any acrobatic or reflex checks would be at -4. Deeper conditions could impose further penalties and decrease movement speed. Some materials conduct electricity and may make certain attacks more likely to succeed. Vehicles could suffer -4 to -20 or could become stuck in snow, mud, or water and unable to operate at all.

Slippery: Whether it's oil or icy, slippery conditions would force a character to make an acrobatics check if he moves faster than half his speed or fall over. (Vehicles get a -20 to drive checks to avoid losing control- which can be counteracted by driving very slow). Skating is possible to increase speed but uphill travel could be difficult or impossible without special tools.

Earthquake: An earthquake could cause problems even when standing still- or destroy structures around you. GM should assign a PL to the earthquake, anyone touching the ground must reflex save against the PL or fall prone. Buildings and structures anchored to the land must toughness save or take damage, with damaging consequences to creatures near or inside them.

Abnormal Weather

Instead of statting out each- I threw together some abnormal weather conditions you might consider to add flavor to your campaign, travel, or battles.

- Lava Flow
- Overgrown with vegetable matter (vines)
- Raining Fire and Brimstone, or animals (Frogs, Cats and Dogs)
- Sharknado/ Arachnoquake
- Wild Magic / Power Granting / Dead Magic zones or fog
- Gravitational or Magnetic anomalies
- Acidic/Poisonous/Chemical Rains or Fogs
- Meteor Swarm or Raining Debris of some kind.
- Avalanches
- Tsunamis
- Steam Guyser
-Noise Pollution (bull horns, loud music, concerts, etc)
- Columns of Fire (aliens from independence day, earth terraforming, divine retribution)
- Radiation or Nuclear Fallout
-Volcanic Eruption/ Clouds of Ash


Spice up the campaign with a little bit of weather!

Potions

I've wanted to play an alchemist for some time- but there isn't solid rules for creating magical objects.
So we'll look right now at the artificer feat.

Note: Quickness can increase the design check. A -2 flaw on quickness allows it to apply to one task. (Such as designing). That means that for 3PP, you can get a rank 9 design quickness (1000x). That means up to 16 PP can be designed in 1 minute. You'll also need the 1 point artificer feat. Quickness cannot increase the crafting feat time.

Personally, I would say that because you're creating the same items over and over, you would probably get a +5 on the design check, allowing you to design in 1/2 the time for free, though I can assume you could skip the design check altogether. The craft check would be unaffected.

So below are a few pre-made potions. The design check uses Knowledge(arcane lore), and the craft check uses Craft(chemical). Remember, you can half the time of both checks with a +5 to the check.

Potion of Invisibility(8pp) Checks: 18/23
Design Check: (8 hour/4 hour)
Craft Check:  (32 hour/16 hour)

Potion of Flight (PL3- 50mph, 6pp) Checks 16/21
Design: 6 hour/3 hour
Craft: 24 hour/ 12 hour

Potion of Super-Movement (any one-2pp) Checks 12/17
Design: 2 hours / 1 hour
Craft: 8 hour/ 4 hours

Potion of Super-Senses (up to 4 pp) Checks 14/19
Design: 4 hours/ 2 hours
Craft: 16 hours/8 hours


Alternately- you can PURCHASE single use potions. Spend Equipment Points equal to 1/4 their PP cost for one dose. (If GM says there's a potion make available)

The Boss Battle

So here you are- the boss battle. You roll his first toughness save and -oops, he's dead!

How can you liven up your boss battle?

First, see the combat complications and minion tactics for ways you can make the combat itself more difficult or utilize minions to provide as much chaos as possible. Also try unkillable enemies for enemies you can't just beat up.

But sometimes you do need to beat up the boss, and you don't want him to just go down.

• Power Level: Well the simplest way to drag out the fight is to make the boss a higher power level than the party, or by simply making him immune to the party's favorite tactics. While this can stretch out a combat, it usually comes down to team attacks or playing "mother may I" in order to beat the boss.
• Hero Points: Well, that's what they're for, right? Give out hero points to give the boss a few extra saving throws? You could give him second chance as an alternative, at least giving him a better chance of not dropping all at once- but still, you're just skirting their powers.
• Broken Tactics: Like the entry here, but you can have the boss use the broken tactics himself.
• Transformation: Give it to Dragon Ball Z to really show you how to drag a boss battle out for half a season. Frieza is a great example. The guy had like 4 different boss forms, and the destruction of each form let out the next. Video games use this sometimes too, no matter how much damage you do to a boss, it merely brings on his next form, which could be justified by having triggered powers, or just a nifty cut scene. This way you can also play like two or three different bosses in one, each time raising the stakes until he comes crashing down in party victory. This could also include him whistling and calling in cohorts, or him being a simulacrum you defeat before the real boss.

Frieza has to be killed like 4 times!

• Multiple Bosses: For some reason, this gets overlooked sometimes- but if there's no ONE boss, then all the PCs won't tend to beat up on him all the time. If you've got a team of bosses, each with different types of powers and unique in their own right, the party won't necessarily look at one as the "boss" and they can do interesting things in the combat and not drop at once.

Who's the boss here?

• Multiple Actions: Maybe the boss can take multiple actions to make him more dangerous. There are ways in game to justify this, from having his armor be a separate "creature" or having him have multiple personalities schismed in his head, each with it's own actions.
• Ablative: The opposite of transformation, and perhaps a subset of multiple bosses or multiple actions, but pieces of the boss get stripped away during the combat, perhaps making him weaker (or not), but showing progress as you fight him. Perhaps his arms fall off during combat, rendering him unable to use certain powers, or you beat down his force field, or the boss is a hydra who is losing heads- the boss can't be killed straight out, but you can rip pieces off him until he's completely beaten.

Just when you thought you won- he's still fighting

• The Boss isn't the challenge: Sometimes the obvious boss isn't the true target. Maybe he's possessed by an amulet or his sword or something, and destroying it breaks the spell. Or perhaps you need to destroy his doomsday machine, and destroying him isn't really important at all.

Nicholas isn't the real villain- it's his Book!

• You must first fight the Dragon: There are multiple bad guys- but instead of fighting them all at once, you fight them in sequence, with several boss battles in a row. Luke fights Vader before the battle with the Emperor, The Turtles fight the Foot Clan before the Shredder, and when you get to the end of Final Fantasy VI, you fight a series of bosses on the way up Kefka's tower before fighting the three statues, then Kefka himself (who also has multiple bosses, multiple forms- some with the ablative quality). In many cases, the main boss is not able to be challenged until his dragon is destroyed.

Okay, first you'll fight Bebop and Rocksteady, then Krang will come fight you- then you fight Shredder.