|
Post by cassusaevum on Jan 22, 2020 13:32:26 GMT -5
A common trope in comics is the "alternate form." Iceman, Colossus, Shazam, etc... Is that purely a trapping with respect to how you're doing things? I'm wondering at the interaction between things like "extra limb" which says "clearly not human" and the idea of your "costume" being a physical change.
|
|
|
Post by gamedave on Jan 22, 2020 14:01:34 GMT -5
I don't have rules for "alternate form" yet. What I'm thinking right now is making that a Complication - another area of the rules I haven't drafted yet.
A Complication is basically a Fate Core "Trouble" or a Mutants & Masterminds "Complication". They make life more complicated for your Hero. This is a hold-over from a previous rule set from before I was familiar with Fate, but they would work pretty similar to a Trouble. The idea would be whenever a Complication makes your Hero's life more Complicated, they get a Fate Token (essentially a Compel).
So, if your Hero has an Alternate Form, and they're caught in a situation where they don't have access to their Power Set, they would get a Fate Point. This would be subject to some narrative and judgement. If you spend one round transforming while everyone else is putting on their costumes, that's not really a Complication. If you have to sit out at least one round while everyone else gets to do stuff, it might be. If you spend most or all of a scene in your non-powered form, or if you're caught off-guard and hammered by a foe before you can transform, that's definitely a Complication worth a Fate Point.
Similarly, a Complication is an Aspect. Which means it can be Invoked or Compelled. So, a foe might have a narrative way to force you out of your Alternate Form, which would be a Compel (you get a Fate Point, or have to pay one to avoid it). Depending on how long you're out of your Alternate Form, and how much that Complicates your Hero's life, you might get more than one Fate Point - you might get one for the Compel, and then one later in the scene for acting without your Power Set, and so on.
This is implicitly baked in to the BattleSuit Power Set - if you're caught in a situation where you don't have your BattleSuit, or have to try to undertake some Actions outside of it where it would be useful, or similar, you would get a Fate Point.
Eventually, I want to integrate Complications into the Hero's Journey. I will also be creating some more concrete Complications, similar to Gifts. At each step, Background, Origin, Power Set, and First Appearance, you would pick one Complication related to that step. Of course, that's a lot of Complications, so those might be just suggestions. At any rate, unlike Fate Core, with one Trouble, a Hero could have a bunch of Complications.
|
|
|
Post by cassusaevum on Jan 22, 2020 23:19:26 GMT -5
How fast can a Battle Suit move? I don't really want Flight, but I also don't want to get on the bus. Is Super Speed an option for a Battle Suit? Or some other similar form of locomotion? Basically, I want a suit that can run as fast as a car or motorcycle, but not sure if that's available as a power under Battle Suit. I'd probably drop Blast and just go with Weapons and Speed in that case.
|
|
|
Post by gamedave on Jan 23, 2020 12:15:41 GMT -5
One of the guiding design goals of the system is to allow for broad flexibility and creativity in building and applying the features of your Hero. The BattleSuit in particular has a lot of narrative flexibility, since in-genre examples tend to constantly add new features. The flip side of that is that in Power Set write-ups I didn't even try to list every possible Stunt or Power. You can definitely add some form of movement Power. It would be at your Scale, like all of your other Powers. Flight is definitely in-genre for a BattleSuit. Super-Speed, not so much - that's a really broad power to add to a Power Set that's already really broad. But if you don't want flight, maybe some other form of movement. Iron Man in the comics actually has rocket roller-skates. That's probably too silly, but maybe some kind of "transit mode", where you disengage your BattleSuit's legs, and they run at Scale on their own? (It's a comic book world, but it still strains my suspension of disbelief if your suit is moving your character's legs fast enough to run 100 mph without ripping them apart). Call it Super-Running, or something, and it lets you travel overland at Scale, but without all of the other benefits (like enhanced reflexes) of full-on Super-Speed?
|
|
|
Post by cassusaevum on Jan 23, 2020 14:10:28 GMT -5
That sounds good to me. I don't really need/want actual "super speed" in the Flash sense. I just want to move at "vehicle speed" to get across town. I'm going to try and post the "finalized" versions of my character and Julie's later today so that you have them. In case I don't get to it and you need the info, assume that for the moment, the battlesuit will not be shooty but will instead be "Super Running" and "Stabby." Specifics of Stabbiness TBD as I want to find a good picture. If said picture has an "energy" blade, I might go shock. If it has a traditional blade, trauma.
Question on Stunts... I got the impression that I can spent a Fate point to "stunt" a power I don't have. Would you consider it "in universe" to then stunt something like a Blast power on the suit? I'm thinking the sort of "rarely used" missile system or something like that? Mostly it matters for where I'm going to set my AI bonuses. I'm thinking it might be better to go the 4 +1s and build for the future, particularly if fate point stunts can be used that way.
And, finally, when it comes do dodging attacks in a battlsuit, is that Evasion or Piloting? I'd kind of lean towards Piloting as the less "munchkiny" option (since evade works out of the suit), but wanted to make sure before placing my Expert Systems.
|
|