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What are the weaknesses of the MSHRPG system itself?
What are the weaknesses of the MSHRPG system itself?
Posted by nijineko
Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere and I missed it.
I am curious as to what are the perceived or actual weaknesses of the system. What useful rules were missing? What rules missed important or obvious things? What rules hindered play? What improvements were missing? As I read back through the core books of the MSHRPG system after years of having no one to play this system with... two things strike me, though perhaps they are minor. And it's been a while so perhaps I missed or forgot an update in one of the other books One, it seems that all aspects of a power default to the rank of said power: range, area, targeting, and so forth. There does not seem to be a built in system for fine tuning and customizing these aspects, though there is a few possible limitations or enhancements worth a CS or two mentioned here or there. Two, after years of creativity, I would imagine that there should be an expanded list of Power Stunts somewhere. Please feel free to correct or remind me, as well as direct me to existing articles analyzing the game overall.
There are not enough power ranks. I would list below average ( 5 ) Above average ( 8 ) ,Very Good ( 15 ) A rank between amazing and Monstrous ( Fantastic 65 ), a rank and a so on. As you said the the default explanation for the power ranks themselves are somewhat limited.
"To defend: this is the pact. But when life loses its meaning and is taken for naught... then the pact is to avenge."
That is a good point about the health. Hmmm. What about pulling a punch to convert damage to an auto stun or a KO toe effect? *** I've also noticed that someone with a Shift 0 Strength, and thus is probably helpless, can still succeed on a strength check around 30 percent of the time?
In addition to the Shift 0 problem, it seems that they set the success rates as follows:
S0=35% (seems to be 35, not 30) Fe=40% Po=45% Ty=50% . . . Un=85% success rate. Thus your completely TYPICAL human has a default 50% chance to accomplish almost anything (modified by circumstance and ability column shifts). I can see why that might be considered a desirable baseline, but I'm not really sure it is accurate nor ideal in hindsight.
Thus the Typical rank of being human is not bad, but 1 50% success rate is "livable"
well I wouldn't call it a weakness, but the magic system is a bit too complex for my tastes, but then again I'm mostly speaking from the perspective of someone who likes to add characters/powers from other universes, so adapting their magic to reconcile with it sounds like too much of a headache for me to try.
I think the automatic failures or successes really go a long way to making the system work since without it, the low ratings would get funny. Second on the too few ranks as well, though I wouldn't put start putting the extra ranks after excellent. Advancement is also confusing and I always simplify it. I also think inventing and magic are not well explained, though I kind of like the system. Finally anything related to vehicles is bad.
Its always natural and viable to " hack " or " house rule " a game,
When we played we house ruled that if a dodge CS lowered the opponents attack rank below shift-0 it missed. it was a way to strengthen the dodge maneuver , make it viable ( otherwise Spiderman defense was poorly simulated in game mechanics ) and mitigate the the agility success of average opponents. so a ty-6 or good-10 gunman shooting at a dodging hero( spiderman ) who rolls well can minus the agility rank right off the board , and the thug misses, otherwise spiderman is getting hit with just an above average roll by a bum
Pretty much everyone I know who's ever run a MSH RPG campaign has had a few House Rules to cover their perceived deficits in the system. Many of the House Rules I'd created wound up becoming part of the Advanced rules set when it came out two years later (mind you - I had no contact with anyone associated with TSR - apparently minds thinking alike and all that). Some examples were multiple attacks, impossible FEATs and resistance FEAT rolls.
Dodging and Grappling are pretty weak, in my opinion - fixable with some minor house ruling. Use of a shield is also pretty ambiguous without a little unofficial clarification. Impossible FEATs are almost necessary - otherwise Willie Lumpkin, blindfolded and staggering drunk atop a speeding L train can still hit Ant Man with a baseball 35% of the time. I think the Advanced system's introduction of the point spread within a Rank makes it unnecessary for me to want to bother adding more ranks. I'd be curious to see a list of cool Power Stunts people have thought up (and used during gameplay). However, I also think the lack of published stunts allows for better customization by individual players. Having a few listed as guidelines works just fine for me.
Ya, I agree with Descartes Demon, I think anyone that plays this game has house rules. It's an effect of it being from an earlier time where as now, the rules frequently give a means to adjudicate edge cases or handle all of the different modifiers with a single mechanic (advantage vs disadvantage)
Dodging and Grappling are not well down for a superhero system since the genre sees it a lot. I'd have liked to see a list of power stunts for every power, not a lot, but at least 1-3 for each power. It would be great for example purposes. Instead, the power stunts listed seem to be relatively randomly distributed.
Charging suuuuucccckkkksss. It should not be based on Endurance. No reason Professor X should be able to do a better charge attack than ....anyone else. Also damage from a Charge is based on Endurance...why would a marathon runner do more damage than a body builder?
Success on standard tasks is too low...like a doctor performing a routine surgery. Close to 50% chance of killing a patient? Lack of any mechanic to account for a character's weight/mass. Godzilla or Fing Fang Foom should get some sort of Health bonus and resistance to stun/slam based on their size. Plus probably a damage bonus. Same for natural dense characters. I don't like giving them levels of Growth or Density Manipulation to account for it, shouldn't have to.
I appreciate the insights of experience!
Thus far we have:
Does that about cover it?
yes.
And then there was the DREADED ::: Martial art A !!!! peaking at the basic version of the game player 1 punches player Z5 in the gut with a rem-30 yellow/slam hit.==== But player Z5 has inc-40 endurance and zero body armor/ or any resistances / -------- Player 1 hurts player Z5 with 30 points of damage and,,,,,,, that's all!! his strength. was not greater or equal to the tough Z5 villains 40 point endurance , next time they fight hero A1 has learned Martial art A and new can slam or stun the inc:40 villain with just the high rolls of yellow or the red! Martial arts A ,, yeah man make it means something like it did in basic MSH ( original set )
Definitely rolling a separate Rank for each attribute of a Power would open up thousands more possibilities. For example instead of attempting to use limitations and weaknesses, rolling the Rank of a Power and a separate Rank for its range means you can end up with a long range weak power (arrows) and a touch range cosmic power (death touch) more easily. Particularly for the upper range of powers, it's a kind of double dip to have an Unearthly power of some sort - which by default also has an Unearthly range for example. Rolling power rank and power range rank separately should be mandatory. More arrows! More hammers! More death touch! More cowbell!
I go once you're in the negatives you lose Endurance ranks per round until below shift-0 where you're dead. Thats my negative health fix and I also allow 0 health to be unconscious. So unless someone is trying to kill or doesn't mind killing, then 0 HP is knocked out.
The Impossible/Automatic feats are part of the system already. They just need to be used. And you have to have the old school mentality of what your should be able to do can just be done. I'm sure they were making a point on this but in my opinion, this should just be automatic. I thought shield use just used an action? So if you had two attacks you could punch and use a shield. I like the magic system. My players, I have 2 magic users currently and had probably 4 or more other magic users previously, really like the system. I've never had engagement in a magic system like I have had in Marvel. It is more complicated than the basic system though. Not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion since I don't want to see that many magic superheroes. Edit: Good list though, I like it. And the amazing thing is that the system is still so good despite the weaknesses.
Thank you! And I agree, awesome system, not too many weaknesses, and still quite playable despite said flaws. I've never built and played a shield or magic hero in MSHRPG myself, so I'm not familiar enough with those rules to comment or analyze.
Another weakness of the system is Building Things. Not necessarily the rules themselves, but people's misinterpretation of that section.
I can't even count the number of people I've talked to that believe some fallacies:
First, building things only cost karma if you want to spend karma on rolls. Usually, this comes up when you try and use a High-Tech heroes gear; "You can't use that because you didn't pay karma for it!". Spoiler alert: you can steal gear from high tech villains and keep it for your own use, without paying any karma. Second, building things is NOT cheap if making "powered" gear. the base cost is MN if what you are trying cannot be produced normally today. So a Warp engine starts at MN while a jet engine might start at TY or GD. Third, each has a resource cost, but materials and other devices can be used to cover that cost. So, if you cannibalize an alien ship, you might have enough materials on-hand to create a device with a very high cost. You can also scrounge in junk yards and such. The main WEAKNESS of building things is the MAX cost is SHZ. Once you reach that you might as well throw EVERYTHING into the device  Plus, ranks of things that are two or more ranks BELOW the highest effective rank...don't factor into the cost...so, if you create a ray gun with IN plasma blasts, you can include EVERY power in the book at IN rank or lower and the effective cost is MN (base cost for better-than-today tech)
Another weakness of the system is the lack of...weaknesses. Not kryptonite or lead, but things like blindness. Limitations somewhat can be used for this, out-of-the-box they only enhance power ranks. What if you'd rather an extra talent? Or would rather boost Strength?
I was struck with this thought as I FINALLY got to finishing the third season of Daredevil. You simply cannot create Daredevil in FASERIP. You would never randomly get a character like him. You could simply say your character is blind, but then there's no advantage to doing that, or really mechanics to get to that concept. While all character traits do not have to map to a rule or points advantage, it's nice when systems account for that for the players that either like to randomize character creation, or for the ones that like to have mechanics to support more complex characters.
That's a good idea. It should have a random table of weaknesses and options for what benefits you get based on the severity of the weakness.
Round three modifications:
Checking the Advanced Players Book, I find the following: A hero may choose to pull his punch, doing less than full damage, or inflict a lesser color result (yellow instead of red). There is no further explanation about "doing less than full damage" in the body of text where this appears (p24 Slugfest section, Blunt Attack sub-section) but the key factor here is the "or"... apparently one may reduce by one color result OR do less than full damage. This usage of OR grammatically indicates that there are TWO options when pulling punches. This would imply (to my mind) that when using the "less than full damage" option the player can state a number of damage less than their full amount that they are doing. They still don't know if they pulled their punch too much, or not enough, but at least there is a numerical option in addition to the color result reduction option if I am comprehending this correctly. Does the community concur with my reading on this? See also p30 Tactics Section, Pulling Punches sub-section which offers clarification that seems to concur with my initial reading and offers specific guidance as to which effects qualify for the "doing less than full damage"... they really should have inserted a page reference on p24 to p30 on this, I feel.
Checking the Advanced Players book (p15 Making FEATs section, Automatic FEATs sub-section), I find the following: Certain actions can be assumed to be automatically successful. Picking up a normal chair is a simple act. and would not require a FEAT roll to determine its success. ...In general, if an item is more than three ranks lower in Intensity than the requisite Ability. the FEAT can be considered automatic, with the Judge's permission. The sole purpose for Automatic FEATs is to prevent the game from being dominated by die rolls. So "simple acts" (presumably as determined by the Judge) can be assumed to be automatically successful OR any item (action) that is 3 ranks lower in Intensity than the requisite Ability (presumably including any Talent modifiers) can also be assumed to be an auto-success. Likewise, the following sub-section is the optional rule for Impossible FEATs on the same page which simply states: As a guideline, any action more than one rank above the ability may be considered impossible.
Dodge yields the following: Dodging is an Agility Ability, and reduces the attacking column shift. A character who is Dodging may move only half his speed in any turn, may not engage in a charging attack, and may perform only one other action that turn, maximum (including making an attack). ... A character who is Dodging makes an Agility FEAT at the start of the turn, as soon as Initiative is determined. That FEAT will determine the reduced effect of attacks on the character. The result may be no shift, a -2, -4, or -6CS shift on any attacks stated in the first part of the round. ... Dodging is usually used against ranged attacks and charging attacks. It has no effect against Slugfest and wrestling attacks ... Powers may modify this rule, the most notable being the Spider-Sense possessed by the Amazing Spider-Man. Thus dodging is only useful against ranged or charge type attacks (see Evading for Slugfest or Wrestling attacks). The key point here is the "Powers may modify this rule" which is not detailed how, except for the example reference given. This would imply, however, that a Power may modify the dodge rule... and I imagine that this could mean potential results of greater than the normal maximum of -6CS. Does the community concur with this reading?
The idea of a Charge in the rules according to my reading seems to be based on the idea that you are just smacking into someone or something with zero technique and mutually taking damage, thus the Endurance Ability tag. I note that it also allows one to substitute Body Armor for Endurance in the calculation. You can boost both the CS and the final damage via sufficient movement during the charge. I suppose that there should be a comment that a Power, Talent, or Martial Art could modify the rules of the Charge attack, similar to the comment in the Dodging rules. After reading the rules, I kinda get why they picked Endurance, but also feel that if a character knows how to focus the speed and power of their charge into a strike, that they should get some sort of bonus based on the Charge.
The Magic section "highly recommends" one interested in using the magic system to refer to MHAC-9 and states that "Magic in the Advanced Set is a duplication of super-human Powers from a magical base..." and that "what follows here is a simplification". I'll have to read this more later, though the first thought that struck me was that each spell should be an individual Power Stunt specifically, not a Power... though I suppose that Magic as demonstrated in the comics allowed for a lot of on-the-fly modifications to an ongoing spell.... Thus, here is the round 4 updated list:
Apologies for all the repeat posts, but since there is no editing previous posts after a certain time period....
Here is the round 5 updated list: Page number references are all from the MA0 Advanced Players Book, unless stipulated otherwise.
Here is an upgraded list (now with more comments and references!):
Page number references are all from the MA0 Advanced Players Book, unless stipulated otherwise. 1. Dodging is not well modeled in the rules (too easy to hit dodging supers from even a non-super's attack, in part due to the Shift-0 rule, item 17; and in part due to the Column Shift limitation, and finally due to “how powers can modify dodge results” is not defined or described; it is guessed that the power which grants a logical modification to Dodging/Evading allows one to use the power’s rank instead of the usual stat). [p27 Defensive Action section, Dodge sub-section. See also the Evading sub-section, same page.] 2. Grappling is also not well modeled in the rules.[p26 Wrestling section, Grappling sub-section, see also Martial Art-A.] 3. Impossible / Automatic Feats (auto-fail / auto-success capability) [p15 Making FEATs section, Automatic FEATs sub-section and Impossible FEATs sub-section. This is an optional rule, and might need tweaking but at least it is addressed.] 4. Success/fail ratio is too low for standard tasks by experienced non-super hands (ie: even Typical people succeed more than half the time at familiar tasks - perhaps some sort of Knowledge Stunt or Muscle Memory Stunt or Skill Mastery sub-system for well known tasks?) [p100 Universal Table; see also Item 4: Impossible / Automatic Feats. Note the “simple acts” clause in found on p15, which relies upon Judge adjudication to decide what counts as a simple act for whom.] 5. Pulling punches can still result in 0-health results, needs non-lethal or negative health capability, or better modeling of pulling punches. [p24 Slugfest section, Blunt Attack sub-section, comments on pulling punches. See also p30 Tactics section, Pulling Punches sub-section. It is noted that pulling punches can happen by column or by color depending on certain specifics scattered between the two locations and not cross-referenced with each other either.] 6. Ranks - Different / more gradation between ranks are desired by some. [p100 Universal Table. The Rank system, while admirable in execution, lacks fine tuning capabilities which causes some to want more ranks, or more specific gradations in color results for numbers under a given rank.] 7. Magic system overly complex, or not well understood compared to basic system. [p61-64 Magic section, see also MHAC-9 Realms of Magic. The basic system effectively makes each magic spell a single power (or power stunt) which makes magicians equivalent to supers. This prevents the ‘mystical book wizard’ archetype from being modeled, which RoM can model – but is rather complex in execution and uses a completely separate set of karma costs for acquisition of magic spells.] 8. Inventing methodologies not well explained. [p65 Hardware: Building, Modifying, and Alien Technology Section, time for invention comment on p66; see also Special Requirements for Inventing section on p68; see also Kit-Bashing section on p69. See also Item 16, Building rules. Note the flaws listed in the Building rules, as they also apply to Inventing.] 9. Vehicle rules need serious fixing. As an example, the vehicle stats appear to be rather low compared to what might be more logical… based on stats alone, a number of supers would be able to one-shot-destroy a tank that are not depicted as being able to do so in the comics. 10. Shield use (Cap-style) needs better explaining, it is not well understood. Basically one may use an object being held as a shield which serves as portable body armor at a penalty, unless it is an object normally used for shielding things. Or one’s self in which case the super tanks the incoming effect. There is a single line mention of a shield “deflecting” attacks, but no rules appear to be given for this effect. In any case, the Shielding tactic forcibly changes the target of an attack.[See also the comments on page 25 about deflection or penetration of an attack versus an interposing substance in the Ranged Attack rules.] 11. Power Stunts - More example Power Stunts for each power is greatly desired. [p71-88 Appendix A, Powers, Stunts are listed among all the various powers, but is inconsistent.] 12. Charge attacks based on END seem nonsensical to some and result in oddities, such as characters not shown as being good at charges in the comics should be according to the rules, and characters who do charge are not that effective, as per raw stats. [p27 Charging section. See also Endurance. The charging rules seem to infer a mutual damage scenario where endurance becomes the effective stat, modified by body armor or other powers which affect the body's material strength/density.] 13. Weight / Mass effects do not seem to exist outside of assigning non-manipulable ranks of Growth or Density Manipulation to cover it, which then take up power slots on the sheet. (Perhaps address size with some specific rules? ) [p16 Ability FEATs section, Lifting Things sub-section.] 14. Make martial arts great again, lol. [p89 Appendix B, Talents: Fighting Skills section, Martial Arts entries. The limited but surprisingly comprehensive within scope options of martial arts could use an upgrade for those playing off planet or in a time period other than the 80’s.] 15. Sub-attributes - Allow attributes of a power (for example: range, duration, area of effect, intensity of effect or damage, target or targets, charge up time, cooldown time, recharge time or multiple uses per turn, control or skill over power, etc.,) to each potentially have their own rank. 16. Building rules have their own problems apart from the inventing rules mentioned above. There are multiple misconceptions about how building tech items works, and how built tech items are treated after construction. Max cap on cost rule allows a "free stuff" exploit. The rule about cost of sub-effects a certain threshold below the main effect allows an "everything in the game" exploit. The rule about "materials on hand" allow one to bypass a resource check if the Referee actually gave the players access to a source of materials without thinking of the consequences. [p65-70 Hardware: Building, Modifying, and Alien Technology Section.] 17. Limitations on Powers do not cover or model properly mundane weaknesses such as blindness, deafness, missing or malformed physicality, neurodiversity conditions, and other story, plot, background aspects of a character that might desired by players who like more involved and complex builds supported by written rules. (Something like the Advantages and Disadvantages system in GURPS?) They also do not provide much gradation or fine tuning to powers themselves. 18. Shift 0 problems: As the rules specifically state that a Column Shift may not move a result below Shift 0, and the Shift 0 column still provides a 35% chance of success, this is can yield strange or nonsensical results such as a person who is in a coma or paralyzed managing to dodge an incoming effect. [p100 Universal Table, See also Item 3 Auto Succeed / Fail comments.] 19. Aging power - Powers which alter the physical age of the target based on a rate of change over time do not seem to correctly model the effects shown in the comics. The rate of change describe in the book does not have a significant effect and is extremely weak. (Ultimate Powers Book, p35-36 - L1/Biophysical Control)
I'll address some of these as best I can... You'll get no argument from me on the dodging difficulties. In general, they wanted to keep combat simplified... but why is it that ranged attacks and melee attacks are treated differently? Dodge with a Red FEAT can still lead to being struck by someone with a high Agility or lucky roll... while melee attacks you can Evade an attack with a Green FEAT that completely negates even an attacker's Red FEAT? I get using different ability for each, but giving each distinctly different rules seems counter-intuitive. It also means that Spider-Man should have been dead from gunshot wounds many times over because statistically there's just no way that the sheer number of gun attackers his Spider-Sense have allowed him to Dodge wouldn't occasionally get a lucky roll. House Rule Suggestion 1: Treat Dodge attempts like Evade with Agility for single shot attacks. Use the Dodge results for automatic fire or area of effect attacks like flamethrowers or explosives because it's easier to avoid a single projectile than it is a continuous stream of attack or something that spreads out. House Rule Suggestion 2: Continue to use Dodge as is, but if an attacker's Agility FEAT is reduced to Shift-0 and there were more column shifts to go on the Dodge result, additional shifts are applied to color results. For example, let's say Spider-Man senses a common thug's pistol attack and dodges with a Red FEAT result, giving the attacker a -6CS penalty. The attacker gets lucky and rolls a natural 100, a Red FEAT even on Shift-0... Typical to Shift-0 is 3 column shifts, which leave 3 unused column shifts. That takes the lucky Red FEAT down to Yellow, then Green, then White for a miss despite the perfect roll... because Spider-Man is super and if he gets a perfect Dodge it shouldn't be trumped by a perfect attack from an average attacker. It's definitely a clunky system, and it's clear that the original game designer was trying to make each primary ability score meaningful by giving you multiple attack options so that a character with only one high rank could have a decent attack mode. But we're given the idea that Green FEATs are a success everywhere else in the game until it comes time to Grapple... and then you need a Yellow FEAT to succeed. I also find it a little wonky that Strength is the determining factor for the attack roll, making stronger fighters better grapplers (which has merit for damage, but not necessarily accuracy) with added skill being determined by Martial Arts C and Wrestling talents, which can be combined unlike most other talents. And on top of that, you can only deal damage on a successful Red FEAT, and a Yellow FEAT grapple only restricts a target enough to impose a -2CS on any counterattacks of their own. All of this might be why the Dodge action was chosen as the means to defend against Grappling attacks... requiring a Yellow FEAT for an attack to even partially succeed makes the column shift penalties of Dodging a bit more useful than it is against ranged attacks. House Rule Suggestion: Put some bite (figuratively into wrestling by treating Green FEATs like Yellow FEATs, and let Yellow FEATs be an intermediary between Partial and Full Holds by being the same as it is now plus dealing damage at -2CS. Also, allow targets to defend against Grappling attacks with either Dodge or Evade results... different fighters are good in different ways. An AMAZING Fight(er) with GOOD Agility should be better at avoiding a Grappling attack than someone with GOOD rank in both Fighting and Agility. Page 15 of the Advanced Player's Book states specifically that Impossible FEATs are optional. Automatic FEATs are useful in downplaying the need for a die roll for every single action, especially when it shouldn't be required. House Rule Suggestion: Decide ahead of gaming (and explain to your gamers) which FEATs --if any-- will fall under the optional Impossible FEAT rule. I like to use a mix of a little common sense and comic booky flair. So Strength FEATs I typically use Impossible FEAT rule, because someone with TYPICAL Strength should not be allowed to lift 100 tons even with 3 Red FEATs in a row on the attempt. 200 lbs is the maximum weight intensity for that Strength, so a Red FEAT should allow a character to briefly exceed that by +1CS or a GOOD intensity strength FEAT for that turn. Things that I would never use Impossible FEAT rule for are any effects that control a target's mind or perception or survival. Characters shouldn't be railroaded into failure of things that take away choice or free will or life. Average people aren't supposed to shine. They can get lucky with high rolls, but it's the people with exceptional abilities that are supposed to stand out in a superheroes game. Combat is dangerous. People are fragile. A good hero should check on fallen opponents to ensure that they're okay... and any that are concerned with their Karma totals definitely will if they think a successful knock out punch worked a little too well. That's definitely a personal preference... ...and I have seen alternative tables with more ranks and/or more color results. I'm sure someone can link to the appropriate options if you really want it. No arguments here. Unofficial Canon Project's "boxed set" update on RoM is Realms of the Occult does expand on magic, but it still feels like mixing a separate game into the standard simple non-magic rules. I don't think there's an easy solution that balances flexibility of spellcasting with costs of non-magic powers. This is not my area of expertise, not going to address it at all. Sadly, Marvel never really had a strong Batman with Batmobile equivalent, so use of vehicles seems like more of a convenience and the game design favors the idea that powers should always trump mundane equipment. Deflecting an attack is using an object as a shield to stop the attack. The material strength of the object is used as body armor. If the object is designed to be used as a shield, then the user can use it a bit more effectively by allowing them to perform other actions without penalty. If someone attempts to stop an attack with a car door (see Captain America movie), then other actions that turn (if any suffer a -2CS penalty because the object was not intended to be used that way and is awkward, inhibiting the hero's actions. Totally agree. Other people have made the same point regarding this issue. It goes back to the earlier point of original game design attempting to make every primary ability relevant with each physical ability translating to some kind of attack form. It's weird and clunky and nonsensical. House Rule Suggestion: Since running is still tied to Endurance, I don't have a problem with allowing Endurance FEATs to still determine the attack roll... but you can also make a Strength FEAT to briefly boost your movement rate, so I'd say let strong characters choose to use Strength for the attack roll. Damage should be based on Strength (or body armor) rank + areas covered. Doing damage based on your Endurance will never sit right with me. Weight & Mass definitely could have used more explaining... There's nothing wrong with Martial Arts talents beyond being a little bland. But each talent isn't really indicative of a given martial arts style, but rather individual tricks or disciplines one learns within a style. Martial Arts A is the core of it, I think, because the whole idea of martial training is to give you a greater ability against opponents who might have superior physical conditioning and the training is the equalizer. B grants you the +1CS attack bonus because that's how most talents work, and C extends the advantage to wrestling attacks... D and E are bonus effects that also enhance overall fighting prowess by allowing one to affect even armored foes or get a little speed bonus. The talents work well enough on their own to show increased melee prowess, but when combined show a character who is a master of melee. That said, there is an Ultimate Talents netbook out there with additional martial arts talents, not to mention I'm sure plenty of people have created their own. Think something's missing from martial artists in your game? Assign it a MA talent letter and move on. In the Advanced Player's Book, you can assign limitations to powers to get a bonus to something else... with Judge approval, obviously. So go ahead and limit or increase range at the cost of intensity or damage, or vice versa. This game needs official quirks that can accomplish what you're referring to. SKIP! This definitely should have been expanded on, and it was something that was covered in the Ultimate Powers Book... although that book made it a lot more likely that you would have some kind of weakness. Quirks! The example you provide is why the game requires a Judge to adjudicate results, but also to determine if something is even possible. Someone in a coma or paralyzed shouldn't be allowed to attempt to Dodge an incoming effect, so there's no real issue here. Definitely not enough rules for aging in the game. Period. There are people who have maintained a regular game with same players over the course of years, sometimes moving on to new (possibly legacy) characters, but what happens to the older ones? House rules, my friend.
A high post count is indicative of little more than one having the time to post frequently.
It does not mean a person is more knowledgeable on any given topic than anyone else.
Pulling Punches- Hero's checking on fallen opponents more is not helping with whether or not Pulling Punches is helpful / useful ( not counting on reducing a Slam result to a green result so villain isn't knocked off a cliff/ building etc )
Bad guy Mercenary with 50 Health - Hulk punches him once - knock out and roll for endurance loss Example 2- Hulk ( or Hero A ) pokes ( pull punches ) Mercenary 50 times for 1 point of damage , mercenary goes to zero and...... rolls for endurance loss. I started using Negative Health very early in my games for multiple uses. One of which was if a character was reduced to negative health but NOT below there Endurance Rank they did Not have to roll to die/ endurance check. So Hulk pulling his punch to Amazing 50 punches Mercenary - who drops to zero is knocked out but will not die because of a possible failed endurance roll. Plus i disliked damage points being lost into nothingness if characters were reduced below zero health I dont suggest this house rule to anyone - it's just what i did when my friends and i played back in the day
Shield Use: Yeah you nailed it- the vague rules and possible power boost using shields in game made it a must have trick.
Running a long term campaign one of my players was using his favorite character Spiderman , who would consistently web himself a Web-Shield when going on a patrol. ( last 1 hour and one could do it again within reason ) after the 1st turn it hardens to a Monstrous 75 object shaped like a shield. !!! so whether a Judge uses it as a 75 point barrier or uses the points that can be absorbed in a combat turn like Captain America - it was a nice battle trick. side note : an interesting formula for calculating maximum points of damage that could be " Shielded " with Caps math --- 90 points I allowed characters to use his shield ( or Taskmasters or etc etc Shield ) by adding Fighting + Agility , which added up to 90 or Agility + Strength + Endurance which again for Cap added up to 90 points-
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TSR is a registered trademark owned by TSR Inc. TSR inc. is a subsidiary of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a division of Hasbro, Inc.
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