On 6/21/2019 at 1:13 AM, Stacie_GmrGrl said:

Will there be any more powers added to the document?

I didn't create the original (all praise to IndianaWalsh!), but I have created a Weather Control power following his formatting and guidelines.

I'll upload the word doc and hope it displays properly (oops, forgot about symbols. Hopefully they're clear enough to read, but I'll see about editing and uploading a symbol free version that will say Average check instead of dd).

Weather Control Power.docx

Weather Control Power.docx

Another house rule that I'm trying out is related to vehicle versus superhero fights. In the comics and movies superheroes can tear through most vehicles easily (I'm looking at you Captain Marvel- or Captain America versus the Shield Hover-Plane in Winter Soldier).

My answer to this is to design vehicles in the setting with relatively low numbers of armor points (especially if you compare it to something like Star Wars vehicles) because you're not trying to balance the vehicles against each other as much as you are balancing them against personal scale superheroes with energy powers, super strength, and the like.

So here's what I've come up with- vehicle vs hero combat relies much more heavily on critical hits against the vehicles to take them out rather than Hull Trauma. They're also a lot easier to achieve. If a hero aims (taking two setbacks) they may crit a vehicle without doing any damage (they don't have to exceed the armor value of the vehicle). Vehicle Defense is applied normally to the attack. Vehicle armor is applied as a -5 on the critical hit result per point of Armor. Any superhero attack with Pierce 5+ or Breach can crit without using the aim maneuver. Also Vicious applies to vehicle hits as well and Sunder can add +10 per activation to the crit roll.

Note that for minion vehicles that makes Armor irrelevant (with regards to crits anyway) which is intentional. It also means you most likely won't have to track Hull Trauma at all. Additionally unlike in personal combat an appropriate power can crit against minion groups multiple times. So if you have crit 2 on your power and roll 4 advantages you will take out 2 minions if you spend all 4 on crits.

So this means that a Hulk style character can attack a minion group of Humvees with his Breach level strength and with a couple of Triumph or enough advantage can grab one vehicle and throw it into another and take them both out.

Most vehicle weapons are getting redesigned as high level personal weapons with the idea that narratively the don't ever land a direct hit against a super-hero. Even a direct hit with a crit would still be described as a graze or diminished by their powers (invulnerability, super-speed, magic barriers, etc). But uses damage on the heavy personal side (so I've been having vehicles use weapons from Shadow of the Beanstalk). So something like a TIE Fighter would have two laser cannons as its weapons (doing 10 base damage) instead of its vehicle lasers which do 60 base damage.

Thoughts?

I just finished up a year-long campaign running this. It was fantastic! There is such a strong sense of progression and customization on the skill trees; my players were extremely invested in their power sets by the finale. I'm going to give just a little bit of criticism (if a part doesn't get criticized here, that's because it was amazing!)

1. The powers need a lot of balance consideration, for those that care about that sort of thing. At my table, it's not an issue if someone's more powerful than another player, but I know it is for many groups. In particular, mind control and speed are extremely weak relative to the other powers.

2. Some of the individual upgrades on trees were unexciting numerical bumps.

Other than those little things, this is all around an incredible supplement and absolutely the way to run a superhero campaign in Genesys.

Wow! I'm amazed that your group is finding Speed to be one of the weaker powers. The speedster in the group which I GM is devastating in combat. It's the combination of Pierce and Linked while being considered engaged with everyone at short range that does it. He possesses most of the tree and has taken a number of beneficial talents to back it up so he's really good at it.

Mind Control I agree with though. Here's the variant that I use for NPCs (none of my PCs have taken it as a power). I don't like taking control away from my players so "she" doesn't spend their actions. On her turn she can force them to act, but on their turn they momentarily throw off her direct control and may act (though at a penalty if still under her control). If still in control she can manipulate them again on her next turn.

Mind Control: 1 strain to Discipline vs. Discipline check to mind control Engaged target. Spend up to 3 strain to increase range up to 3 times. Spend 3 strain to increase targets by 3 (a minion group counts as one target). Spend 2 strain to replace any social check with a Discipline check. Concentration to maintain control on all controlled targets.

Controlling PCs- controlled PCs act normally on their turn (but use her Discipline as their difficulty to attack her or her allies). On her turn she may spend her action to force them to take an action and a maneuver (in addition to their own action). She manipulates them using her hands like puppet controls, but it is difficult to maintain. She must spend 1 strain each round that she forces a PC to take an action.

If a PC takes an action to try to snap someone out of her control they may make an appropriate Social Check against her Discipline. If successful she loses control and upgrades the difficulty to regain control once.

Has anyone attempted to use these rules to run something like the Boys or the Reckoners?

I really want to run a Reckoners style campaign of ordinary getting revenge on Superheroes gone bad.

Do you think these powers and Adversaries etc would be too much for normal people to face with the likes of Guns. I mean I still want the enemies to be nigh invincible, as the game would focus on investigating and discovering weaknesses.

4 hours ago, Spartancfos said:

I mean I still want the enemies to be nigh invincible, as the game would focus on investigating and discovering weaknesses.

If you want that then use the No Mere Mortal rules in Genesys Core and treat it as if the PC's are affected in reverse (so an NPC Nemesis would only take at most, 1 wound or 1 strain from a PC's attack but would deal their usual damage to the PC's). Then just bring in your concept of weaknesses and let those weaknesses bypass the No Mere Mortal rules so that the NPC is as vulnerable to a PC's attack as a PC would be to theirs.

Basically, make the NPC's Superman (from the animated series). He could get hit, knocked out and occasionally injured, but it was like chipping away at him slowly. However, you bring out some kryptonite and the dude can get his butt handed to him.

On 8/20/2019 at 7:09 AM, Spartancfos said:

Has anyone attempted to use these rules to run something like the Boys or the Reckoners?

I really want to run a Reckoners style campaign of ordinary getting revenge on Superheroes gone bad.

Do you think these powers and Adversaries etc would be too much for normal people to face with the likes of Guns. I mean I still want the enemies to be nigh invincible, as the game would focus on investigating and discovering weaknesses.

I think this system would work really well for something like that. In my last session the toughest supervillain they fought was the one with no powers but with tremendous crossbow marksman skills. All she had were high ranks and several talents (extended range, adding linked) and she was dropping more of the PCs than any of the super powered bad guys. So a PC with solid skills and talents could go against a super-powered nemesis with a good chance of success. I think GroggyGolem's comment is a good suggestion. It actually might be too easy without using his reversal of the No Mere Mortal rules.

16 hours ago, FinarinPanjoro said:

I think this system would work really well for something like that. In my last session the toughest supervillain they fought was the one with no powers but with tremendous crossbow marksman skills. All she had were high ranks and several talents (extended range, adding linked) and she was dropping more of the PCs than any of the super powered bad guys. So a PC with solid skills and talents could go against a super-powered nemesis with a good chance of success. I think GroggyGolem's comment is a good suggestion. It actually might be too easy without using his reversal of the No Mere Mortal rules.

That sounds promising. The variation allows me to run different Tiers of Supers as well, so not everyone is "No Mere Mortal" but the very best are. My original plan was to run my own variant of Phoenix Dawn Command, but that would mean making an entire Card Based RPG first.

This is some great stufff

I'm considering another rules variant for this setting specifically. That is to change multi-hit options (Linked, Auto-fire, Multi-weapon attacks) against a single target into a damage bonus instead of a full second hit. I'm thinking that each additional activation against a single target would add damage to the first hit equal to ranks in the combat skill used to make the check (or in the case of two weapons the ranks in the skill for the second weapon if different from the first). If you hit a separate target (say with auto-fire) the first hit on each target is full damage, subsequent hits would follow this rule. Minion groups would add ranks equal to their effective ranks (so activating linked or auto-fire is more effective with higher number groups to a max of 5).

I'm considering this because these qualities/abilities still tend to be the most powerful options available due to the math. This change would help against high soak targets (20+) in that the first hit becomes more powerful rather than multiple ineffective hits taking place, but not in a game breaking fashion (I think).

Thoughts anyone?

I really like this set of rules and plan to try them out soon. One idea i am looking into adding in my own game is is a version of the obligation system from edge of empire and possibly the conflict system from force and destiny. I am thinking of obligation as a way of having the heroes secret identities popping in to the sessions. The idea with the conflict so scaling them on a heroic or vigilante path. Creating a set of rewards/limitations on either end of scale. As the slide more towards vigilante, they might have police or other groups hunting them. The my lose access to resources, such a informant or something. On the flip side if they slide towards heroic then they might loose access to the underworld elements they might have contacts in, of become targets for more powerful villains trying to make a name for themselves.

Here are some talents I adapted to supplement Superpowers in this system based on talents that supplement magic skills- my version of Signature Power supersedes that in Indiana Walsh's supplement (for my campaign anyway- YMMV).

Superpower Talents (characters must have purchased a superpower to purchase these talents)

EMPOWERED

Tier: 1

Activation: Passive

Ranked: No

Once per encounter after you use one of your superpowers you may add a boost die to your next social skill check.

BRILLIANT POWER

Tier: 2

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

When your character uses a superpower that requires a check (or makes a check aided by a superpower) they may spend a Story Point to add advantage equal to their ranks in the skill used to make the check to the results.

EMPOWERED (IMPROVED)

Tier: 2

Activation: Passive

Ranked: No

Your character must have purchased the Empowered Talent to benefit from this talent. If your character has made at least two purchases of a single superpower tree, when they use the Empowered Talent, they may add two boost die to their next social skill check.

SIGNATURE POWER

Tier: 2

Activation: Passive

Ranked: No

Choose one superpower that you possess, the first time in a turn that you use this power, reduce the strain spent by 1 to a minimum of 1. This talent may be taken more than once but applies to a different superpower each time.

EMPOWERED (SUPREME)

Tier: 3

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

Your character must have purchased the Improved Empowered Talent to benefit from this talent. If your character has made at least three purchases of a single super power tree, after they use that power they may use the Empowered talent to force all enemies within medium range to make a Hard Discipline check or suffer 5 strain plus one strain per threat and use all available maneuvers to move away from the character.

OVERPOWER

Tier: 4

Activation: Active (Action)

Ranked: No

Once per encounter, your character may make a Hard Resilience skill check and choose one superpower that they possess. For the rest of the encounter, they may treat the upper limit of that power as one higher than their current limit (if they can grow to silhouette 3 they may grow to silo 4. If they can lift silo 4, they can lift 5, etc. If they can add 2 range bands of speed, they may add 3, and so on). They must still pay any associated strain costs to reach this new limit. The GM may spend Despair or 3 Threat from the check to have them suffer 5 strain at the end of the encounter or lose the ability to use the power again until they spend several hours making an Average ( dd ) Resilience check.

POWER CONDUIT

Tier: 4

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

Once per encounter, your character may spend a Story Point to use a superpower action (including a combat check enhanced by or using a superpower) as a maneuver.

POWER MASTERY

Tier: 4

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

When your character uses a super power as an action, or makes a combat check using or enhanced by a super power (such as a brawl attack that gains Pierce from Speed or Strength), they may spend Triumph to trigger up to three different qualities or effects associated with that power instead of one. These qualities or effects must be ones that can be triggered by spending advantage or Triumph.

POWER MOVE

Tier: 4

Activation: Active (Incidental)

Ranked: No

If your character possesses the Flight, Speed, or Teleportation power immediately after taking an action using a superpower that requires a skill check (including combat checks enhanced by a superpower) they may spend 3 advantage or Triumph to instantly move to any location within long range. They must be able to reach that location normally (or spend the strain to teleport if using that power to reach an inaccessible location).

SIGNATURE POWER (IMPROVED)

Tier: 4

Activation: Passive

Ranked: No

Your character must have purchased the Signature Power Talent to benefit from this talent. Choose one superpower that you possess, the first time in a turn that you use this power, reduce the strain spent by 2 to a minimum of 1.

ENDURING POWER

Tier: 5

Activation: Passive

Ranked: No

If your character exceeds their strain threshold through the use of a superpower, their strain remains at their threshold and they are not incapacitated. They may continue to spend strain to use that same superpower without exceeding their strain threshold until they spend a turn not using that particular power (in which case they now suffer strain for using that power normally) or exceed their strain threshold in some other fashion (for example, spending strain in another manner or taking strain damage).

VERSATILE POWER

Tier: 5

Activation: Passive

Ranked: No

Upon taking this feat choose one characteristic that is not already a super-characteristic. This characteristic now becomes a super-characteristic, and thus you roll an additional proficiency die into any check based on this characteristic for each Triumph result generated in that check.