Here here! I like the revised rules as well. That's what I meant by the Basic ruleset. Anyway, I am going to bump up to the Advanced rules/UPB. I'm going to post general thoughts and current creation rules draft (This post is rather large >>; ).
Rules/Guidelines:
1. This Game world is based off of a Marvel Earth WITHOUT Marvel Heroes. I did this to make use of the Deluxe New York Campaign set. As such all heroes and villains of this New York and Beyond are completely original.
2. Be mindful of this fact, for it’s important: The origin of Meta-human powers in my campaign world derives from the Alien energy source that bathed the earth due to an event I’m keeping under wraps. For now, let’s call it by a very unoriginal name: Energy X. Your character’s origin must be linked to Energy X in some way, shape or form. Your character may be completely unaware of this fact. (Using real comic book examples: Peter Parker getting bit by a spider who was irradiated by Energy X. Steve Rogers super soldier serum had Energy X as one of it’s ingriediants). Be creative, as I WILL be giving out Karma rewards for exceptional origins.
3. Original Characters only. You can ‘imitate’, but don’t ‘duplicate’.
4. When making a character, be mindful that the first scenario will be designed to bring you and your peers ‘together’ as a team. Almost similar to how the New Avengers were formed. In short, you can make a street level vigilante or a flying guardian, just be aware you won’t be alone for long, so don’t expect to be a loner.
5. I’m using Rook’s system cause it was proven to work well. But as number three says, I ‘imitate’ not duplicate. As time goes on and I get my feet wet with you, the players, I will be making changes to increase fun or squash unforeseen shananigans.
6. I'm using Yahoo. (Haven't made group yet). I'm looking for people who can at least make one post a day. One post = one turn. This may be slow for some of you, but this takes into account some who may have time constraints and lives.
7. This goes without saying, but all feat rolls will be done by me.
Rules for Character Creation
Part 1 (Part 2 is optional, but recommended)
The rules for Character Creation in my new PBEM are listed below. As some of you may notice, it follows the same format that The Rook used for his PBEM.
Phase 1. All characters begin play with 300 Character Points (CP) to spend as they see fit in the creation of their character. This should be enough to allow for growth, while at the same time allowing you to start out reasonably powerful.
Phase 2. Allocate CP as you wish to your FASERIP stats. For example, let’s say you wish to buy Excellent (20) Fighting for your character. You have spent 20 CP in doing so. For your own quick accounting, adding your Health and Karma scores should tell you how many CP you’ve spent in this phase of character creation. Don’t blow all of your CP in this phase, though…there’s a lot of creation left to be done!
One added note. You CAN buy ranks at their base values (Excellent at 16 instead of 20)
Phase 3. Allocate CP to your Resource Rank. Resources, as you know, can be a very versatile asset for your character. So you know I’m going to make you pay for that flexibility! Each Resource point costs double the amount of CP to buy. For example, if you want to create a wealthy character with Remarkable Resources…be prepared to pay the kingly price of 60 CP for it! Further, I am placing a cap of Remarkable on a character’s initial Resource Rank (so no, you’re not going to play Bill Gates!).
Phase 4. Buy your Powers. Every power in the Ultimate Powers Book is in play here…so feel free to get creative. If you have a “custom power” in mind that you’d like to try out that isn’t in the UPB, run it by me for pre-approval. Each Power you buy costs 10 CP. If the Power you would like to choose is “Starred” (designated in the book as particularly powerful or versatile), it costs 20 CP to buy. Powers that, by their very nature, do not have a Power Rank will cost you 20 extra CP to buy (in the interest of character balance). For example, buying Circular Vision would cost you 30 CP, rather than 10 CP. This is the heart of your character, here. Go nuts!
Phase 5. Buy Ranks for your Powers. Okay, now you have Powers. But how strong are they? Here’s where we find out. You buy Ranks for your Powers just like you allocated FASERIP scores. For example, let’s say you’ve bought Carrier Wave in Phase 4 and now want to purchase an Excellent (20) Rank in that Power. Simple…it costs you 20 CP. The exception for this is in the case of “Starred” Powers. Purchased Ranks will cost you double the CP for those much-coveted Powers. For example, that same Excellent (20) Rank, bought for Molecular Conversion, will cost you 40 CP (reflecting the extreme power now at your character’s disposal). Further, I am placing a cap of Monstrous on a character’s initial Power Ranks. So keep that in mind!
Phase 6. Cripple yourself. Just a figure of speech! No need to really maim yourself! What I mean is: buy yourself a limitation, if you wish. This is completely optional. If you choose not to buy a weakness, then skip this phase completely. However, if you choose to buy some type of drawback for yourself, you gain the benefit of recouping some of your spent CP. How much you get back depends completely on the severity of the limitation you choose for yourself. For example, let’s say that you decide that your character’s limitation is that his/her Carrier Wave Power only functions during daytime. That’s defined in the MSH Advanced Player’s Guide as an Excellent (20) Limitation. That means you get 20 CP back to spend as you see fit. Limitations not covered in the MSH Advanced Player’s Guide will be assigned a Rank by the Judge (that’s me). Be creative!
Phase 7. Buy Talents. Fill out your character with a nice array of Talents that gives him/her a nice flavor…or maybe the extra competitive edge you desire. All Talents listed under the Weapons, Fighting, Mystical & Mental or “Starred” Talents will cost you 10 CP. All other Talents will cost you 5 CP. As per above, anything not covered in the Advanced Player’s Guide will be subject to definition by myself.
Phase 8. Buy Contacts. Here’s where you can branch out to the rest of the Marvel Universe, if you so desire. You may purchase Contacts at the cost of 5 CP, buying a maximum of 5 total (no, you can’t be like Wolverine and know everybody in the MU). Keep in mind that if you want to reference somebody in a more-than-passing manner in your character’s history, it should be reflected here.
Phase 9. Create your History. This is where you tell me everything I need to know about your character. You can be as brief or as elaborate here as you would like. That being said--bear in mind that I will give Players generous Karma rewards for especially well-written or compelling histories. Also keep in mind that if you don’t come up with a history for yourself…I will. That means that if your history has a lot of holes in it, and I have to guess what fills them up…well, I will guess. You might like what I do with those guesses…and you might not. What say you just hedge your bets and try to be comprehensive, okay?
Phase 10. Submit your character for approval. This is as simple as it sounds. You get to e-mail the character that you’ve poured all your imagination, sweat and effort into…and I get to derive the pure joy that only a Judge can know by tearing it to shreds.
Just kidding! Actually, I’m really easy to get along with…as long as you stick to the rules! I’m very serious about what I see as “attempt to circumvent the rules”. I tend to see that as a Player’s attempt to cheat his fellow Players…and that’s something that really fundamentally bothers me. To me, there are limitless possibilities within the boundaries that I’ve established above. Stick to them and I have faith that you can come with a really awesome character that’ll be a ton of fun for you to play.
PART 2
Phase 1. Ruling Passion. The passion describes the profound emotional state of the character, that is, not just their current mood, but the one passion that permeates everything they do. This is for convenience to anyone who wants to know your character at a glance without having to read your entire history (due time constraints or what have you). One sentence minimum.
Phase 2. Character Traits. Characters have 3 traits, which describe who the character is. The traits indicate what the character cares about, the special skills that define her, the goals in her life, the unrequited love that drives her mad, the flaw that always makes her flustered, and so on. A trait can be focused on another character, or it can be general. Traits guide play and fuel the character's actions.
Making up a trait can be easy or hard, depending on how strong your vision of your character is. A trait can come in many shapes: it can be your character’s trademark battle cry, a fact about the character’s personality, an attitude, and so on. Here are some traits from the example characters:
There is nothing that scares me.
Beautiful singing voice.
“You’re going to regret that.”
I can never tell her how I feel.
Always in the shadow of my mother.
Unable to resist the tantalizing lure of flames.
You can gain a mark on a trait for playing a character scene (Character Scenes are explained later). When you gain five marks, you gain a +3 Karma role-playing bonus.
You can save up one or two of the trait slots and fill them in during play (and you can change them later, anyway at the end of an adventure). This allows you to get a feel for the character first, and you can more easily connect the traits to the other PCs this way. In fact, for the most satisfying play experience, I suggest tying at least one of your traits to one of your fellow PCs at all times. And for maximum enjoyment, make it something that complicates both of your lives.
Phase 3. Character links.
Is there anything unique about your character’s history that you want to turn up in the campaign? If so, you put that down under a Character Link.
If your character has a long-lost brother, and you list him in your background, then I’m not going to bring him up in play. The brother plays a role for who your character is, but he won’t be used by me for plot purposes.
If you list your brother under links, however, you are giving me the green light to have your brother show up in the game as an NPC. Or maybe you’ll find clues to his whereabouts. Or you may find his corpse. How the link is used will be up to me (though you should feel free to make suggestions, of course). You can add or change background items and links later on as well, just make sure to inform me so that I can use the new links (or stop using ones you removed). You are limited to two links.
These ARE NOT final, but consider them as law for right now. Character Ideas can be sent to
joshua_brannum@hotmail.com.
