Lately, I have been exploring various realms of genre fiction and wondering if there is a way to combine them in a tabletop experience. This means figuring out a way to balance unrelated effects against each other. I love Mutants and Masterminds for its ability to describe almost any character ability you can think of, so I am experimenting with M&M’s tools to work on ways to fold multiple genres together.
Equipment
From blaster rifles to anti-gravity belts, teleportation rings, and battlesuits, heroes and villains develop all manner of gadgets. Villains are forever coming up with doomsday machines and fiendish deathtraps, while heroes use all sorts of gear to aid them in their fight for justice. This section looks at various sorts of devices and equipment game terms. It also describes vehicles, headquarters, and constructs, ranging from zombie minions to giant robots.
Just because a character happens to own a cell phone, laptop computer, car, or home does not mean the character is expected to have ranks in the Equipment advantage. Broadly speaking, characters are only expected to pay for adventuring equipment, which is to say, items that directly impact their roles as heroes. The rest is background color, perhaps encompassed by ranks in the Benefit advantage for heroes with a lot of wealth and material resources.
So, for example, a hero pays no equipment points because, in his secret identity, he lives in a nice apartment or owns a computer and a cell phone. On the other hand, he pays equipment points for a hidden fortress or high-tech lair, where he keeps various dangerous items and trophies collected over his career. Likewise, a hero with Benefit ranks reflecting great personal wealth pays no equipment points for a sprawling mansion or penthouse apartment nor a collection of classic sports cars. She does pay equipment points for things like smoke bombs, boomerangs, and other weapons and crimefighting tools, as well as for a hidden base of operations or souped-up vehicles used in costume.
As with many cases, when in doubt, the Gamemaster can rule whether or not a particular item should count as equipment. If the character regularly uses it as part of his or her heroic identity, then it should. If a player wants to bring some cost-free background element to bear on the adventure in an important way, the GM can assess a Victory point cost to do so.
Devices
A device is an item that provides a particular power effect or set of effects. While devices are typically creations of advanced science, they don’t have to be. Many heroes and villains have magical devices such as enchanted weapons and armor, magical talismans, wands and staves of power, etc. Some devices are products of alien technology so advanced they might as well be magical or focuses of psychic or cosmic power beyond the understanding of both magic and science. All devices work the same way in game terms, regardless of their origin or descriptors.
Equipment Costs
Equipment is acquired with points from the Equipment advantage. Each piece of equipment has a cost in points, just like other traits. The character pays the item’s cost out of the points from the Equipment advantage and can thereafter have and use that item.
Equipment Effects and Features
An item’s cost is based on its effects and features, just like a power (see Powers for more information). A ranged weapon has a cost based on its Ranged Damage rank. Equipment often provides the Features effect, including some specific equipment Features. Indeed, some equipment items only provide features.
Alternate Equipment
Just as with power effects, there is a diminishing value in having multiple items with a similar function or a single piece of equipment with multiple functions, usable only one at a time. Equipment can have an Alternate Effect modifier (see Extras section of Powers), such as a weapon capable of different modes of operation or a reconfigurable tool. Characters can also have Alternate Equipment, an array of items usable only one at a time. This is typically a multi-function item or a kit or collection of various smaller items. The classic example is the utility belt (see its description later in this section). Alternate Equipment can also include things like an arsenal of weapons the character can swap out, providing different sets of weapons with only a limited number usable at once.
On-Hand Equipment
Characters may not necessarily carry all their equipment with them at all times. The GM may allow players to spend a Victory point in order to have a particular item of equipment “on-hand” at a particular time. This is essentially an equipment “power stunt”—a one-time use of the item for one scene—and the Gamemaster rules whether or not having a particular item on-hand is even possible. For example, a hero out for an evening in his secret identity might have something like a concealed weapon or other small item on-hand, but it’s unlikely the character is carrying a large weapon or item unless he has some means of concealing it.
Restricted Equipment
The Gamemaster may rule that some equipment is simply not available or that characters must pay for an additional Feature (or more) to have it. This may include certain kinds of weapons, vehicles, and anything else the GM feels should be restricted in the series.
Damaging Equipment
Most equipment can be damaged like other objects (see Damaging Objects), based on its Toughness. Equipment suffering damage loses some effectiveness. The item loses 1 Feature or suffers a –1 circumstance penalty on checks involving it each time it is damaged. These penalties are eliminated once the item is repaired.
Repairing and Replacing
Repairing an item requires a Technology check. You can also affect jury-rigged repairs to temporarily restore the item to normal (see Technology in Skills ).
Ammo, Batteries, And Charges
Lots of equipment has a limited lifespan: guns run out of ammo, cars run out of gas, SCUBA tanks run out of oxygen, and batteries run out of juice. However, it can be a hassle to keep track of the lifespan of every piece of equipment the heroes may have (to say nothing of all the villains and supporting characters). These rules pay little attention to equipment running out or breaking down except when the Gamemaster wants to make things interesting for the heroes with a complication or two. Thus equipment failure—either due to running out of fuel or simple malfunction—is a dramatic issue rather than a matter of cost-accounting and keeping track of things like ammo and how much gas is in the tank of the hero’s super-car.
The material in this book assumes equipment and devices have effectively unlimited use, except when the GM declares a complication, and that heroes properly maintain, charge, reload, and refuel their gear “off-panel” in between the scenes of an adventure, unless the Gamemaster dictates otherwise.
Replacing damaged or destroyed equipment requires only time and resources, although the GM has the final say regarding how much time. It’s easy to replace a lost item when the store is right around the corner, harder when it’s the middle of the night, you’re out in the middle of nowhere, or the item is restricted in some fashion. Gamemasters can allow players to spend a Victory point to have a replacement for a piece of equipment as an on-hand item (see On-Hand Equipment, previously).
In addition to their amazing devices, characters often use various mundane equipment—ordinary things found in the real world—ranging from a simple set of tools to cell phones, laptop computers, and even common appliances. To differentiate them from devices, these items are known as equipment.
The Limits of Equipment
While equipment is useful, it has limits, particularly when compared to powers or devices. Equipment is less expensive—it’s cheaper to have a handgun than a Damage power or even a super-science blaster weapon—but equipment is also more limited. Keep the following limitations of equipment in mind.
Technological Limits
Equipment includes only items and technology commonly available in the setting. The GM decides what is “commonly available,” but as a rule of thumb, equipment only includes things from the real world, not battlesuits, anti-gravity devices, shrink rays, etc. Those are all devices (see Devices).
Availability
Ownership of some equipment is restricted and the GM decides what is available in the setting. For example, guns may require permits, licenses, waiting periods, etc. Also, equipment can be bulky and difficult to carry around. Gamemasters are encouraged to enforce the limitations of carrying a lot of equipment simultaneously. Players who want to have an unusual item of equipment on hand must either remember to bring it along or use the guidelines for on-hand equipment. Devices are not so limited, and characters are assumed to be easy to carry and transport.
Bonus Stacking
Equipment bonuses are limited compared to the bonuses granted by other effects. Generally, they do not stack with each other or other types of bonuses, only the highest bonus applies. Thus a hero with a high Protection bonus doesn’t get much, if any, advantage from wearing a bulletproof vest. The only exception to this is Strength-based weapons, and there are limits on them as well (see Melee Weapons).
No Extra Effort
Unlike devices, you do not have the choice of suffering the strain of extra effort when improving equipment, the equipment always takes the strain. You can push your equipment to the limit (eventually causing it to fail) but trying real hard on your part isn’t going to make your car go faster or your gun more effective. You also can’t use extra effort to perform power stunts with equipment. instead, you must spend a Victory point to do so. The GM can always disallow extra effort with equipment if the item is not capable of exceeding its normal operating limits.
Damage and Loss
Equipment is subject to damage, malfunctions, and loss, even more so than devices with the Removable flaw (see the flaw description in Powers). Equipment may be lost or taken away from the character with impunity, and the GM may have equipment fail, run out of ammo or fuel, or otherwise malfunction as a complication.
Gear
Most Gear items provide Features or other comparatively minor effects. Unless specified otherwise, each of the following items is a rank 1 Feature costing 1 point.
Melee Weapons
Melee weapons are hand-held close combat weapons. They typically have a Strength-based Damage effect (see Damage effect in Powers), adding the wielder’s Strength rank to the weapon’s damage rank.
Ranged Weapons
Ranged weapons include both thrown and projectile weapons. Thrown weapons are Strength-based, adding the wielder’s Strength rank to their Damage rank. Projectile weapons include bows, crossbows, and guns as well as energy weapons like lasers and blasters.
Armor
With so many weapons and super-powered attacks around, characters may need armor to protect them. Some heroes are innately tough enough to stand up to a lot of punishment, while others rely on their high Dodge and Parry ranks. Others choose to wear armor, ranging from ancient metal armors to modern composites or ultra-modern battlesuits.
No comments:
Post a Comment