Power Stunting

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zerombr
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Power Stunting

Unread post by zerombr »

if one were to check out my 'create your own signature move' part of the Physical Training rewrite in Rifter 82, one'd see how I want to do the same for power stunting, ie: the ability to change effect of a power, enough to be notable.

Energy Expulsion stuff is easy, I've got like 20 ideas

The tough part is thinking about other powers. Overall I'd like stunt concepts to be fairly generic, ie: able to be used equally well on at least a few powers without any problem.

Without actually trying to nail down a power stunt for me, can anyone list ideas they might have for defensive powers, or say, strength powers or speed powers?
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Re: Power Stunting

Unread post by eliakon »

zerombr wrote:if one were to check out my 'create your own signature move' part of the Physical Training rewrite in Rifter 82, one'd see how I want to do the same for power stunting, ie: the ability to change effect of a power, enough to be notable.

Energy Expulsion stuff is easy, I've got like 20 ideas

The tough part is thinking about other powers. Overall I'd like stunt concepts to be fairly generic, ie: able to be used equally well on at least a few powers without any problem.

Without actually trying to nail down a power stunt for me, can anyone list ideas they might have for defensive powers, or say, strength powers or speed powers?

I'm kind of leery of power stunts.
The reason is that in many ways it undoes much of the things I liked about your previous material. Specifically it provided the skill based characters something 'special' sort of their own super power if you will.
If everyone gets that... then the skill characters are right back to second class again.

The second reason I am leery of power stunts is that they tend to be heavily involved with the mechanics of how the power works and 'manipulating' that for some benefit. Which can be tricky with the same power coming from many different sources let alone many different ways to 'interpret' them.
What would be an easy trick for one form of EE: Energy would be almost impossible for another form of EE: Energy.


Third thing I worry about is that Speed powers are already very powerful. These are some of the go-to powers due to them providing huge mobility, the rare and coveted auto-dodge, and pretty hefty combat bonuses. This isn't just speed though, it goes for several other powers as well. Giving some of these already top tier powers stunts is likely to be just problematic.

And lastly, with so many powers out there already power stunts run the risk of making not just certain powers but entire character builds obsolete (why take power A B C and D, when I can just take E and F and then this stunt here and here...)


With all of those caveats...

For any and all powers
-Combination attacks
-Training in ways to modify your H2H skill to incorporate your powers. Strong people might add death blows, or automatic knock down on a n20, or increase their threat threshold. Defensive people might learn risky combinations and maneuvers. Speedsters might learn how to do a circular parry, or circular dodge of fancy rapid fire attack combinations. the possibilities of 'tailored training' are endless
(This is one that I think would be the least likely to be disruptive, the most flexible, and has the most universality as it can apply to all sorts of things not just heroes)

On to the requests
For a strength power:
-the prototypical "earthquake stomp" or "shard spraying smash" would probably be in theme.
-So would something like the practiced skill super strong people in the comic books have with wielding those improvised objects like cars, telephone poles, steel girders and the like.
-Learning to comfortable and efficiently use your strength could allow for the classic comic book trope of huge swords and battle axes with blades the size of normal people... that the strong guy can wield just fine thank you very much.
-trope is full of using your allies in creative ways.

For Speed powers:
-Practice moving in place really fast (increasing that auto-dodge or giving foes a penalty to strike or, and this would probably be my favorite, bringing in the N&SS "circular dodge" and "Circular Parry" mechanics in a limited form)
-Training to combine your speed with specific skills to allow for faster use (trope of super fast knife throwing, juggling 20 balls, and the like)
-training with your speed to learn how to do a specific pair of things really fast (a specific paired action, or two specific skills, or that sort of thing)

Defensive powers:
-learning to use your defense in a creative way to provide limited protection against something thematically close.
-the ever tropey "I'm tough so I hang on with will" type stunt
-ways to use your defense to protect others.
-learning how to make yourself even tougher (more SDC/AR/HP/exoshell/whatever)
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zerombr
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Re: Power Stunting

Unread post by zerombr »

ah well my idea is that this'd be for characters without tons of powers. like, how many people play a mutant with the least amount of powers? the idea is 'to make the most of what you've got'. Since these characters have a lot less to work with, and less things to focus on, they can develop more technique.

So i assure you, I'm not trying to overshadow my previous stuff with it. :)
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zerombr
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Re: Power Stunting

Unread post by zerombr »

speaking of speed, yes it is pretty top notch, isn't it? I'm probably not going to do anything for speed stuff, I'm just fishing for ideas I can play off of. Obviously I can't do stunts for every single minor power in the books (and minor-only powers are the focus of this stunt thing anyway)
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Author of "Setting the Stage" - Rifter 79, "Hitting the Streets" - Rifter 81, "Hitting the Gym" - Rifter 82
"Saving the World", and "On the Hunt" - Rifter 83
and lastly, my baby, my long term project... The Dark City of Cascade - Rifter 84.
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Re: Power Stunting

Unread post by Stone Gargoyle »

If you can mimic the abilities of a Major power using stunts with a minor power that kind of makes the game less based on skill and more about munchkins seeing what they can get the GM to allow. I allow stunts for some things, but the stunt ability is way less powered than if they got that ability by taking the major version of the power.
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zerombr
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Re: Power Stunting

Unread post by zerombr »

I agree wholeheartedly. Any minor power shouldn't equate a major. It could emulate some characteristics, but it'll never be as powerful.

using minor powers only may require extra attacks to use, or deal lesser damage. Its not meant to take the place of major powers, its meant to provide something interesting and extra for characters that have a lot less to work with.
"The Guides to the Megaverse(tm)" Podcast at https://guidesmegaverse.podbean.com/
Author of "Setting the Stage" - Rifter 79, "Hitting the Streets" - Rifter 81, "Hitting the Gym" - Rifter 82
"Saving the World", and "On the Hunt" - Rifter 83
and lastly, my baby, my long term project... The Dark City of Cascade - Rifter 84.
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