novi Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 Long time roleplayer here who is suffering a slight problem. I just can't seem to grok MnM. Which makes me a little embarrassed, since Hero System is my default system, and I have no problem understanding it. So while I can understand the rules, I just can't picture what a properly made character looks like. And while I could just play something simple out of a book, that's too easy. So I was hoping I could get some help putting a character together. Player Name: novi Character Name: Polymer Power Level: 10 (150/150PP) Trade-Offs: +/-0 Attack / +/-0 Damage, +/-0 Defense / +/-0 Toughness (or "None") Unspent PP: 0 Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30 In Brief: animate lump of malleable plastic with a comatose real body Alternate Identities: Identity: Birthplace: Occupation: chemical researcher Affiliations: (People and/or groups you work with) Family: Age: (DoB: Month [Optionally, Day & Month], Year) Gender: Ethnicity: Height: Weight: Eyes: Hair: Description: Power Descriptions: (if applicable) History: Genius chemist is working on an experimental, highy complex plastic. Some kind of accident/malfunction/origin story happens. Wakes up inhabiting/controling body of said plastic, while normal body is unresponsive. Personality & Motivation: Wants to know what happened, and what it will take to wake up original body. OTOH, I'm an F-in superhero! I'm going to have some fun now! Also, is a skeptic: does not deny fae, people who claim to use magic, or the like exist, but thoroughly believes that everything is quantifiable and explainable by science Powers & Tactics: The experimental plastic responds to mental commands, capable of reforming into almost any shape. Other physical properties can be adjusted, allowing for a wide range of shapeshifting and stretching type powers. Not so good with fine details just yet. OTOH, is capable of forming simple working mechanisms. Complications: My Real Body: Real body has been comatose since accident. It's being taken care of in a long term care facility. Kinda wants to use it again at some point. Skeptic: Believes everything is explainable by science, and follows its logic. Tends to get tripped up when things use other logic or rules. Abilities: 10 + 6 + -10 + 14 + 2 + 2 = 24PP Strength: 20 (+5) Dexterity: 16 (+3) Constitution: - (-) Intelligence: 24 (+7) Wisdom: 12 (+1) Charisma: 12 (+1) Combat: 8 + 8 = 16PP Initiative: +3 Attack: +4 (+8 Melee) Grapple: +13 Defense: +8 (+4 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed Knockback: -0 Saving Throws: 0 + 3 + 3 = 6PP Toughness: +0 (+0 Con, +0 [Other]) Fortitude: - (+0 Con, +0) Reflex: +6 (+3 Dex, +3) Will: +4 (+1 Wis, +3) Skills: 28R = 7PP Acrobatics 2 (+5) Computers 4 (+11) Craft (Chemical) 8 (+15) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 6 (+13) Knowledge (Technology) 4 (+11) Medicine 2 (+3) Stealth 2 (+5) Feats: 14PP Ambidexterity Attack Focus (Melee) 4 Chokehold Dodge Focus 4 Grappling Finesse Improved Grapple Improved Pin Inventor Powers: 30 + 5 = 35PP Immunity (Polymer Body, Immunity to Fortitude Saves) [30PP] Regeneration (Polymer Body, +5 to Recovery Checks) [5PP] Drawbacks: (-0) + (-0) = -0PP Disability (No sense of smell, and limited taste, Frequency: [Common], Intensity: [Moderate]) [-3PP] DC Block: ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT Unarmed Touch DC15 Toughness (Staged) Damage (Physical) Abilities (24) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (6) + Skills (7) + Feats (14) + Powers (35) - Drawbacks (-3) = 99/150 Power Points As you can see, I was thinking of doing it as a construct. I was also planning on being off the combat caps, since the character doesn't have a good reason to be that good at fighting. Beyond that, I was looking at Plastic Man-esque powers. So I would appreciate help massaging the numbers and filling in the rest of the character. Thanks in advance.
Cubist Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 It's actually quite normal, if not expected, for people with Hero System expertise to find MnM a bit confuzzling; while the two systems do share a fair amount of concepts in common, the differences can really mess you over... sort of like how the UK and the US are "two great nations separated by a common language". Regarding your lad's "Science rules" mindset: It may be worth noting that the Freedom City setting includes a number of genuine deities, not to mention all those honest-to-Hecate magicians who are running around. A "science rules" mindset can work if your boy is a Nay Theist, but the character will just look silly if he is, instead, a Flat Earth Atheist.
Supercape Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 This looks a solid start. A good lump of clay from which to mold you character... ... ...rimshot!... There isn't anything particularly wrong with it as it stands, its just that it doesn't look particularly Super, if you get my meaning. The lump of clay can't change shape, isn't particularly resilient, or tough, or strong. Al you have is a genius intellect in a body that is immune to Fortitude saves. Having said that its a groovy idea. Some things you should consider: Firstly, and I am assuming you want him as a "Power Level 10" Character, bring him up to "combat caps". This means his attack, defense, toughness and one attack damage are at +10. You can "trade off" attack/damage and defense/toughness y adding up to +5 and subtracting up to -5, for instance adding +3 toughness and subtracting -3 defense. For your lump 'o clay, I would probably do this by bringing his strength up to 30 (for a +10 bonus) and melee attack up to +10. You could of course bring his strength up even higher say to 34 (for a +12 bonus) and keep his attack as it is. For his toughness, you really need to buy some protection power - his current toughness is zero. Buy Protection 10 (and increase Defense to +10), or zip it up to 12 (and keep defense as +8). That is the most important thing I think. However, you may wish to buy some fun powers - what can a malleable lump of plastic do? Elongation would probably be a fine power to get, especially since he is going to struggle if he cant reach his opponents! 1 Rank of Insubstantial may be what you are looking for - being able to flow out of grapples, nets, through door cracks, etc. Extra Limbs? Super Strength? Faster Regeneration? Tremorsense? Depending on how you see his body, you may want to buy some limited Immunity. Something like limited immunity to bludgeoning damage would cost 10 PP (under the house rules) and would half the damage from fists, falling, clubs, etc, possibly representing his malleable nature. Really M&M Can mimic nearly anything. Its just a matter of visualizing what you want it to do. I have't gone through this with in detail, just some thoughts. You will probably need to end up shaving some points from somewhere like we all do! INT 24, by the way, is equal to the most intelligent man who ever lived (by our standards). INT 18 is sufficient for a genius! On a final note Re: Gods and atheism/thiesm etc as Cubist says. You can't deny the existence of such entities. You don't have to label them as "Gods". There are several science heroes such as Doktor Archeville (and one of my own) who would just label them as "entities science doesn't understand yet!". It goes the same for science.
Broseidon Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 These are just some suggestions. Since you have 51 points to play with, I'd go with [*:1vsl9c65]Bumping your base defense to 8 and dropping dodge focus (4 points) [*:1vsl9c65]Getting Uncanny Dodge and at least 8 ranks of Notice (3 points) [*:1vsl9c65]Strike 7 (Feats: Mighty) (8 points) [*:1vsl9c65]Protection 12 -or- Protection 8 and Dodge Focus 4 (12 points) [*:1vsl9c65]Honestly, opinion-wise, I don't see the drawback as a drawback. More a complication. Believe me, you want HP during play more than points during character creation (3 points) Now if you do that exactly, you'll have 21 points to play with. If I were building this guy, I'd give it some of the following powers: [*:1vsl9c65]Leaping (you can bounce like a super ball ) [*:1vsl9c65]Immunity (falling damage) (again with the bouncing) [*:1vsl9c65]Elongation (you mentioned stretching in your powers, but didn't give him any stretching powers!) [*:1vsl9c65]Additional Limbs (works well with your grappling build you seem to be building ) [*:1vsl9c65]Enhanced Dexterity (since plastic is more pliable than strong. Plus it works well with Grappling Finesse)
Ecalsneerg Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 Regarding your lad's "Science rules" mindset: It may be worth noting that the Freedom City setting includes a number of genuine deities, not to mention all those honest-to-Hecate magicians who are running around. A "science rules" mindset can work if your boy is a Nay Theist, but the character will just look silly if he is, instead, a Flat Earth Atheist. I can actually see it working really, really well. I mean, with fire controlling mutants running around, why can't someone be all delusional and claim their mutant superpower is in fact magic? Centurion was absurdly powerful and beat up the personification of Entropy, why couldn't gods just be incredibly powerful superhumans?
N/A Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 And while I could just play something simple out of a book, ... Yes. Yes, you could. Something out of a book, or from Ecal's thread. That's what they're for. ...that's too easy. There's no stigma here against using pregens. And since character sheets aren't set in stone here, you can always submit a rebuild later when you understand the game better.
Dr Archeville Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 I can actually see it working really, really well. I mean, with fire controlling mutants running around, why can't someone be all delusional and claim their mutant superpower is in fact magic? Centurion was absurdly powerful and beat up the personification of Entropy, why couldn't gods just be incredibly powerful superhumans? This is exactly the take on magic and the supernatural my namesake character has: that it's all just mutants who are either delusional and believe they're magical, or who are deliberately lying to pose as deities, or extraterrestrial hijinks witnessed by ignorant hicks (i.e., the Stargate ploy), or things from some other dimension. He's flat-out wrong, though, since magic and gods do exist, as separate and distinct things, in the FC Multiverse.
Avenger Assembled Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 There's nothing wrong with a character who doesn't believe in magic and/or the divine. It's what most people in the setting believe (I've bolded this to stress it), and characters can easily rationalize any counter-evidence they see. Will that cause problems if your character is confronted with enemies he doesn't know how to fight? Yes; that's called Complications and they give you HP. (Obviously, your character should be 'too polite to comment on all these crazy people', since people aren't going to want to adventure with a character who tear down their abilities) Combat caps; get away from the idea imposed by other RPGs that a character who isn't a good fighter shouldn't meet their caps. PL 10 characters should meet PL 10 combat caps: never buy them up again if you don't want your character to be a great fighter, but meeting your combat caps at character creation as PL 10 is basically essential to functioning as an M&M PC (If you don't, it forces the people running your threads to adjust their challenges accordingly, and frankly they're more likely to run threads for characters who actually do meet their stated combat caps). And just to stress: there is absolutely 0 (big fat 0) reason not to use a pregen character if you find one that meets what you're looking for. Particularly since if you check Geez3r's thread, you'd see he's got a character built like the one you want to build. Even if you don't like his mechanics, there's plenty there that's useful for you in building your own character. I've got several "liquid body" type PCs on my own thread.
Dr Archeville Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 And to expand on a point Cubist made re: the Hero System -- it may help you (in addition to all the points Shaen made) to think of M&M as a very, very stripped down version of the Hero System. Both are effects-based systems, but unlike the Hero System, you can do more -- quite a bit more, really, due to Extra Effort and Hero Points -- than what is written on your sheet.
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