[Torg] All the TORG supers stuff you never asked for

[Benjamin Grant]

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: torg-bounces at justintimeadventures.com [mailto:torg-
>>bounces at justintimeadventures.com] On Behalf Of Kansas Jim
>>Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2008 1:45 PM
>>To: Torg mailing list
>>Subject: Re: [Torg] All the TORG supers stuff you never asked for
>>
>>Benn wrote:
>>
>>[...]
>>
>>> Also, an unmastered power stunt will require a roll, however you can
>>add +2 to the roll for 1 shock point, multiple times if you like.
>>
>>Is that +2 being added to the die roll itself or to the bonus number
>>generated by the die roll?

To the bonus number.

>>
>>> David Dunn, for example, has a massive weakness: when he is partially
>>or completely submerged in water, not only does he lose his powers, he
>>loses some access to his possibilities. (Jeff ran it that he loses all
>>access to his possibilities, to me that's too harsh and in conflict
>>with the base spirit of Torg - I would rule that all possibility costs
>>are doubled or tripled while submerged.)
>>
>>I'd probably stick with existing mechanics, maybe something like a
>>combination of Stymied and Marked For Death - the latter prevents
>>him from spending any P-Points to negate damage and the Stymied will
>>hinder but not prevent his ability to use P-Points for rerolls while
>>in the situation.

That sounds functional.

>>
>>> Domain power characters must start with only one level in the power,
>>which then costs a normal amount to raise as any skill add does. There
>>is a further limitation to how quickly a Domain power can be raised:
>>the checkmark system. That is, you not only have to spend the
>>possibilities, you need to have enough checkmarks to "unlock" the
>>power.
>>
>>While it sounds like the checkmark system would inspire creativity in
>>the player (since they have to do something "cool or interesting" to
>>get one) I could see it also being frustrating for a player who isn't
>>able to think up something cool or interesting to do every adventure
>>and so he falls behind in progressing with his powers.

"cool or interesting" really boils down to (I think) either one awesome use
of the power or several entertaining uses - and most people who have powers
wind up using them in non-boring ways.  If he is falling behind, the GM
should probably find out why the player isn't using his powers much.

>>
>>> This makes it take a minimum of 32 sessions to go from one to ten -
>>about equal to what the other powers take to become fully effective.
>>
>>Is it really equal? It seems like Stunts and Pool Powers could buy up
>>to
>>really high power levels much faster.
>>

First of all, Domain based power do probably take a little longer to get to
ten, but they also are some of the most powerful types of characters in the
game - like the Flash.  At level ten, they become for all intents and
purposes gods of their domain.

Also, Pool powers are limited by how many points are in the pool, plus you
normally need ancillary skills like Aim to shoot a Force Blast, etc.  I
found when I played a Pool power character that to do three powers such as
Flight, Defense, and Offense, I needed around 40 pool points - this equates
to a +10 in the pool skill.  So if you figure Aim to +4 - +6, Power Pool to
+10, other various useful skills like Flight or Dodge, etc - sounds like it
will take a fair bit.

Stunt powers might be cheaper - of course, despite having various stunts
these character all ultimately one-trick ponies.  Still, to get 6 stunts you
only need a +6 in the Power Skill and 6 2-possibility purchases.  However,
the potential relative speed of purchasing may be balanced that while you
can have multiple stunts, each stunt need to be pretty solidly based on the
basic power.  For example, one Stunt based character we had was a character
that could Freeze things - not ice or cold, but stasis.  And he found out
(in learning stunts) that he could freeze aspects selectively.  Some of the
stunts he picked up were: being able to freeze the health of someone such as
himself, which would prevent all damage, being able to freeze the air such
that it acts like an impenetrable shield or wall, being able to completely
freeze an entity (his first trick), being able to freeze the air while
riding on it on a motorcycle, allowing him to ride on the air out of
traffic, etc.

However, while he learned many tricks/stunts, there are many abilities that
he could never access: for example, stasis doesn't really lead to any good
travel powers like Flight, Teleportation, SuperSpeed, etc.  Also, it doesn't
lead to any good offensive powers either, like blasting or AoEs.  So while
he can learn various stunts, those stunts MUST be based on the core power
directly.  Which tends to limit the power considerably.

Oh another limitation - the power stunt can only be used on one target at a
time.  If he freezes a bad guy, he cannot freeze another bad guy without
releasing the first of without having bought a second instance of that power
stunt, which counts against his allotment and costs just the same if it was
a brand new stunt.

So perhaps the Stunt based character is able to level his power more
quickly, but a) they probably run out of good stunts fast and b) the
basically never have access to abilities not strongly rooted in their base
power.  On the other hand, it seems that Stunt based supers tend to have the
best ancillary skill development to make up for what their powers do NOT do.

-Benn Grant
eFix Computer Consulting
benn at 4eFix.com
603.283.6601