Optional Rules

### **Creating Powers**

There is unfortunately no purely mathematical way to create a balanced power. Many factors have to be taken into account. Here are the guidelines that we used to create the super powers to begin with. If you or your GM want to invent a new one, follow these general guides and use your judgement. Be prepared to change the power *after* you've designed it and even used it in a game or two. If it seems to powerful in the game, then reign it in. If it seems useless, then beef it up.

**Don't Duplicate a Power**

The first question to ask yourself is if the power you want to create is already in the system. For example, there is no power called *Claws* because the *Natural Weapons* trait already does that. There is not *Heat Vision* because *Energy Attack* already does that. Similarly, there are powers you can get only by combination, which is on purpose. The powers do only what they say they can do. If you want a useful ability out of the game, you have to pay for it. The argument that, "with this power I *should be able to* do something else" is anathema to the philosophy of this system.

By keeping the powers as separate as possible, the system provides both a great deal of flexibility and maintains fairness. In this system, you cannot for example take *Fire Form* and thus gain flight, flame strikes, heat resistance, etc. If you want to build a character with all those abilities, you have to pay for them individually. Making a power that simply combines several powers that are already in the game essentially breaks the system as it's designed, so don't do that.

**Look for Pre-Existing Versions**

The second question to ask is whether the ability you want is already in the SRDs somewhere. If it is, then you can probably cut and paste those rules, with a little tailoring. If the power you want is a spell, for example, you'll probably have an easier time designing it than if you're making it up from scratch.

**Determine CP Cost**

Add all of the following up in order to get a rough estimate of a power's cost in CPs. Melee damage is reckoned at about 1CP per 1d6. A 30-foot Touch attack costs on average about 3CP. A range increment of 50 feet costs 2CP. There are many standardised prices for enhancements, like activation time increases and decreases (2CP per action), as well as reflexive shifts (3CP). Look through the enhancements to get an idea of what already has a price and use it if it's there.

One full power is about 8 to 10CP. By a "full" power, we mean that it has some kind of debilitating effect in combat (damage, unconsciousness, etc.), or it achieves some useful effect either in or out of combat (avoiding obstacles, manipulating objects in a convenient way, etc.), and it has a couple of useful enhancements loaded on to it. This is a very rough estimate, of course. The base powers are often about 5CP to start and then have options that raise the price further, but the more useful a power is, the more expensive you should make it. That point bears repeating: the measure of power's CP cost is its *use value* in the game, not how hard it "should be" to achieve a certain effect by the reckoning of real-world physics or some such rationale. For example, flying at the speed of light is only 2CP because it's just not that useful in a game.

Aside from sheer power level, flexibility is something else to take into account when pricing a power. A power that grants a specific bonus, a +2 to AC for example, may be extremely useful but it's limited to that one thing. A power that the player can shape into many and various forms should be very expensive, like *Force Field*. The moment you put that kind of creativity in the player's hands, they will make something deadly out of it. This is not *bad*. Creativity is the soul of role-playing games. It just needs to be *expensive*.

**Determine Power-Point Cost**

Power Point cost is usually just 1PP to activate and 1PP per round to sustain, but if the power grants an especially useful ability, feel free to raise it, but keep in mind that a 4th-level character, the default starting level of the game, will have only around 25 PPs, on average. It's perfectly reasonable that they can maintain a very strong power for only a few rounds. If the PP cost is 4PP per round, they will get only five or six rounds out of it before they need to rest and regenerate power points, and it'll be the *only* power they can use.

Powers that are based on a unit of damage, healing, distance, weight, or the like and that you intend to be used regularly can be "By Character Level" ("By CL"). The exemplar for this activation cost is *Energy Attack*. *Energy Attacks* that do relatively little damage don't cost anything in order to allow you to use them a lot. Very powerful *Energy Attacks* do cost a lot.

**Determine Activation/Sustain Times**

Finally, activation and sustain times are somewhat standardised. Movement powers should require no PP cost. Skill enhancers should require no cost. Powers/effects that inflict damage or heal damage should have a cost *By CL*.

The activation time can be a standard action if you think someone should be able to use the power and attack in the same round, or a move action if you don't. Use a full-round action if the power ought to require a little more prep time and be a little less common in a fight. Sustainable powers should have a sustain time of "round/minute" or even "round/hour" if they're useful outside of fights, but only for tasks that require time. For example, *Size Shift* can be very useful outside of a fight, but only if you don't have to pay for it per round.

The sustain cost, if applicable, is just the activation cost and a free action, unless you think that sustaining the power should require attention, in which case assign a swift, move, standard, or full-round action as you see fit.

That's about as specific as we can get with these guidelines. There is no formula to plug in and get a perfectly balanced power. You have to test it to know how it will behave in a game and you have to be willing to alter it once you've tested it to make sure that it works and is fair. If, as a GM, you do find that something is either too powerful or not powerful enough, you should just talk to the player and tweak it until it's not unbalancing the game any more. If, as a player, you realise that it's underpowered, then you have every right to ask if you can make it more on-par with your fellow players' abilities. If you realise it's overpowered, then it is your responsibility to suggest a way to limit it without ruining your fun. The best way to solve these kinds of problems is almost always the direct approach, person to person, rather than trying to solve it all in character.

### **A Few Words About Violence**

If you've played combat-based RPGs or video games for a while, it's easy to forget that in the kind of world where superheroes operate, **most people aren't accustomed to violence**. When someone starts shooting or crashes through a brick wall, most people are going to scream and run. You're different, of course. You run *towards* the smashing and gunfire, but that's part of what makes you a hero. Likewise, even those who might put themselves in the middle of violence, such as street criminals, are only rarely capable of actually killing anyone. Beating them up, maybe, but not killing. **Most people do non-lethal damage in combat because they hold back**, not just because they don't know how.

The superhero genre is distinctly different than other RPG genres, such as mediaeval fantasy or espionage or war. **Superheroes constantly have to work around innocent bystanders and pull their punches with street thugs.** It's just part of the genre; your characters will be so powerful that they have to pull their punches with regular humans in order to avoid killing them. You and your gaming group will have to decide how much of that kind of thing is expected in your game world, and how much the police, the government, and the public will be comfortable with heroes who actually kill the bad guys. As always, it's ultimately up to you, but it is something to think about.

#### **Trashing the Scenery**

One of the most identifiable aspects of combat in superhero comics is that **stuff gets trashed*.*** Cars are thrown back and forth. Streets are ripped to pieces. Buildings topple. That is exactly how a super fight should go. Just like a normal fight should destroy the room, a super fight should take down the neighbourhood. Wanton destruction is pretty much what we're going for, here. Don't underestimate just how much more exciting a fight is if you make sure to point out that you took out a phone booth with a missed kick, or that when you knocked back a villain, he went straight through a brick wall. Don't worry too much about the exact number of HPs it might take to do these things. **Sets are expendable. They exist to make the fights more fun.** Even a missed attack can be exciting if it's accompanied by a car blowing up, and **missing is a lot less of a bummer if something cool happens**.

This is also **a great way to make your villains more threatening**. Instead of "He tries to hit you with his eye-beams, but he misses," say "He tries to hit you with his eye-beams, but you manage to dodge, and he puts a hole in the wall behind you big enough to see the hair salon inside." More details and more destruction make it more fun and rewarding when the PCs finally kick that villain's ass.

You can also use destruction to your advantage by **having villains threaten to destroy the homes and property of innocent people**, and possibly put your heroes on the defensive. You'll want to decide on the violence level of your game to determine, for example, whether there are people on the bus that your villains use to pound the crap out of your heroes. It's a common gag in superhero comics, for example, that buildings and cars that are destroyed in super fights are conveniently empty or abandoned, but you don't have to follow that cliché if you don't want to.

#### **Lethality**

There is **very little healing available in the modern world** outside of scientific medicine. Even in a superhero world, healing powers are quite rare (only one: Healing Touch), so taking lethal damage in large amounts can be a game-ender. Although it is not required, **we recommend that you use non-lethal damage in most encounters and save lethal damage for particularly dramatic or important scenes**. Doing so means that your PCs can heal their non-lethal damage between scenes, but taking that damage in combat still has meaning because if they fall, they're *very* vulnerable. It also means that when someone does actual lethal damage to those players, it will be all that more dramatic.

The in-game explanation for this stylistic choice is very simple; in safe, law-abiding communities, **most just people don't want to commit murder**. There are exceptions, of course, but given the law-enforcement systems in place in nations such as the USA, Holland, or Japan, killing is just not very high on even a villain's list of useful options, especially compared to a mediaeval-fantasy world. Theft and mayhem are one thing, but leaving a whole lot of dead bodies behind is not a great strategic choice, even for organised criminal syndicates.

Of course, if you choose to use lethal damage, you can just as easily rethink your game-world such that *that* is the most reasonable option (e.g., a veritable arms race between heroes and villains, the likes of which many comics have depicted), although in such a world, you might want to encourage players to take healing powers and/or provide NPCs who have them, otherwise you'll have a whole lot of death, or a whole lot of down-time between games, or both. Ultimately, this stuff is *always* up to you. We just like to provide a few options so that you can make your own decisions.

### **Awesome Bonuses**

As a bit of good-natured goofiness, you and your gaming group can decide to play by the Awesome Rules, which pair up with the Tongue-In-Cheek Feats. At any time, the GM can grant a **bonus to an action that is deemed to be *awesome*** by a loose consensus at the table. The vast majority of Awesome bonuses should be to PCs, but they might very occasionally go to NPCs. This bonus is **minimum +2 and maximum +10**, although a +10 bonus must be an act that is truly and deeply awesome on a spiritual level.

GMs have the final call on what gets an Awesome bonus, of course, but the will of the group should be taken into account. Only a gaming group that is not prone to extended bouts of rules lawyering should take on these rules, as they can create bad feelings at the gaming table if they're taken too seriously. Some of the Tongue-In-Cheek rules, specifically the verbal feats, grant awesome bonuses as well, but remember that like bonuses don't stack.

Here are some very general rules of thumb for the right level of bonuses:

+2: makes you grin and say "sweeeeeet"

+4: makes someone at the table cackle

+6: someone giggles through the round just waiting to see the awesome thing

+8: you feel compelled to actually applaud

+10: you'd feel comfortable telling the story to a non-gamer

Awesome bonuses can be applied cross-player. If for example the team Sneak comes up with a brilliantly ridiculous tactic for the team Blaster to employ, the Blaster might get the bonus because she's performing the action although the Sneak gets the bragging rights.

### **Bogus Penalties**

The opposite of an Awesome Bonus is a Bonus Penalty. These sometimes result from using certain Tongue-In-Cheek Feats.

### **Constitution Damage**

This system is a modified version of Vitality/Wounds from Monte Cook's *Unearthed Arcana*. In it, your HPs function differently, and instead of Negative HPs, when you run out of HPs, damage goes straight to your Con score.

**Hit Points** are superficial bumps, bruises, and scrapes. Your experience in combat represents your ability to avoid lethal blows, turn what could have been fatal into something that merely wears you down over time. You recover HPs quickly, and you don't die of losing them. The number of them, how you roll for them, and how many you get, are all unchanged. There are two major differences, however.

You recover HPs very quickly: **1 per character level per hour** (double that for long-term care). Once you run out of HPs, damage counts directly against your Con score.

**Constitution Points** represent serious, mortal injuries from which you could easily die. These are somewhat like Negative HPs, but they are also quite literally *your Constitution score*.

You only take Constitution Point damage once you run out of HPs. When you lose Constitution, you also lose anything based on that score. You recover Con points at a rate of **1 per character level for 8 hours sleep** (double for 24 hours rest, triple for long term care). Every die of healing restores 1 Con point (all healing restores Con points *before* HPs)

Taking **Constitution damage** at all does two things.

You become *fatigued* (but further Con damage doesn't make you *exhausted*). You must roll Fortitude (DC 5 + Con damage) or be *stunned* for 1d4 rounds. Anyone can use a standard action to end your *stunned* effect (e.g., slap across the face, cold water, shouting "WAKE UP DAMNIT!").

Once you get to **Constitution 0**, two more things happen.

You become *disabled*. If you take a standard action, you start *dying*. You must make a Fortitude save (DC 15) or, again, start *dying*. Note that the GM might rule an action that is particularly strenuous is the equivalent of a standard action even if it isn't one technically*.* Once you are ***dying***, you must make a Fortitude save every round (DC 10 + 1 per round of *dying*). There are several potential results:

Fail: you are *dead*

Succeed: you are still *dying*

Succeed by 5: become *stable*

Succeed by 10: become conscious and *disabled*

Treat Injury (DC 15) can render you *stable* instead of *dying*.

**If you become *stable***, make a Fortitude save every hour (DC 10 +1 per hour).

Fail: you are *dying*

Succeed: remain *stable*

Succeed by 5: conscious and *disabled*

While you're *stable,* once a day, you have a 10% of starting to recover Con points naturally.

Anyone or anything **without a Constitution score** has only HPs, and dies when it gets to HPs 0. **Massive damage** and **non-lethal damage** do not exist in this system.

### **Fatiguing Actions**

In this system, you do not have a set number of power points or action points. Instead of paying to do heroic things, heroic things tire you out.

**Taking Fatigue**

You can get fatigued in two ways, and there's no upward limit on how much you can take:

**Activating powers**: fatigue equals the power-point cost

**Fatigue Effects**

You take a **cumulative -1** penalty to all **d20** rolls for every **10 fatigue** that you earn.

**Curing Fatigue**

Any form of **fantastic healing** (spells, *Healing Touch*, etc.) cures an equal amount of HPs as it does fatigue. You also regain fatigue by **resting**:

every hour of **activity: 10** x character level

every hour of **resting: 20** x character level (no running, fighting, or the like)

every hour of **sleeping: 30** x character level (a full night's sleep cancels all fatigue)

### **Full Flurry System**

Under this rule, you replace iterative attacks with flurries. **A flurried full attack grants an extra attack every BAB +5, but at a cumulative -2 to all attacks**. For example, if you have BAB +17, you can make up to four attacks at -6 each (see table, below).

When you make a full attack, **you can choose how many of your flurries you want to use** and thus control how much of a penalty you take. **For example**, with that BAB +17, you could make either a single attack at +17, or two attacks at +15, or three attacks at +13, or four attacks at +11.

If you have the ability to **flurry as a standard action** (e.g., Rapid Shot), then you can still do so, but you cannot combine a standard-action flurry with a full-attack flurry. **For example**, you have Rapid Shot and BAB +15. As a standard action, you can make two ranged attacks at -2 each, but as a full-round action, you can make three attacks at -4 each.

You can combine flurries with **two-weapon fighting**. The two-weapon penalty is cumulative with the flurry penalty, but the two-weapon-fighting penalty is a single penalty, not one per off-hand attack.