Super RPM [RPM/Supers]

[AlexanderHowl]

I was wondering if anyone had any thought about using the Supers power modifier with RPM rather than the Magic power modifier so it would fit better in a supers campaign? Would you allow RPM in your supers campaigns if it was modeled as a super power? If so, would you make any changes to RPM?

[ericthered]

If a player asked to be an RPM mage in a supers game, I'd allow it, with a couple of cavets:

First, I'd strongly suggest taking a few powers as "signature spells" they can perform again and again. Especially whatever it is they'll be doing by default in combat. I suggest doing that for high-end RPM mages even when it isn't a supers game. I'd allow these powers to be taken as alternate abilities to ritual adept.

Second, I'd give the RPM mage a lower budget than some of the other supers. This is actually something I do in most-high-powered RPM games I've run, and I usually get mages anyways, and they feel balanced with everyone else. I'd also be mostly "granting" players power sets anyways, rather than building powers with strict point budgets, or at the very least using a very strong "pool of points" system.

[Ejidoth]

The main difference between the Super and Magic power modifiers is that Super allows both supernatural and technological countermeasures, while Magic only allows magical countermeasures but also cares about local mana levels.

So, for RPM as a Super ability:

• there's no such thing as a desecrated area or a place of power;
• people with Anti-Super powers can block or dispel your spells; and
• weird science gadgets can interfere with, nullify, or even take control of spells.

As magic systems go, though, I think Sorcery is a much better fit for a Supers campaign than RPM is. Pyramid 3/105: Cinematic Magic has a pretty good article titled "Super-Sorcery!" that covers the suggested tweaks it would need.

[dataweaver]

Or you could combine the two suggestions by taking the Sorcery system, replacing Sorcerous Empowerment with Magery (Ritual Path) as its core advantage, and replacing Sorcery's Improvised Magic (Sorcery pp.6–8) with the RPM rules. Technically, Hardcore Improvisation is just an application of the Using Abilities at Default stunt rules from Powers, and could theoretically be kept even when replacing Sorcerous Empowerment with Magery (RPM); but that may be an unnecessary complication.

Conceptually, everything flips on its head: RPM becomes the primary mode of casting, and Learned Spells end up representing a handful of rituals that the Super-mage has internalized to the point that they're second nature to him now, per ericthered's suggestion, instead of the Known Spells being the primary mode and the Improvised Magic being a desperation move if you don't have the Known Spell you need; but that's just a shift of focus. In a way, Sorcery's Known Spells become another way to do what RPM Adept (Time) attempts: the ability to cast magic quickly. A Super-mage with a few key Known Spells could probably do without Ritual Adept.

Ejidoth's recommendation of Pyramid 105's Super-Sorcery still applies, with surprisingly few tweaks (e.g., the article's section about Super-Simultaneity gets rephrased in terms of locking up only some levels of Magery (RPM) instead of all of them for the smaller Learned Spells, as opposed to locking up only some levels of Sorcerous Empowerment instead of all of them), as the bulk of the article is about how Known Spells are tweaked by Super-Sorcery. That said, it might be worth reviewing it with RPM in mind.

[AlexanderHowl]

Interesting suggestions, though I would keep Ritual Adept to make RPM competitive with super abilities. RPM would also allow normal people to the 'latent' super abilities within every human, since anyone can technically use it, though with massive difficulty.

[dataweaver]

Fair enough. And if you include Ritual Adept as part of the replacement package for Sorcerous Empowerment, you get more options in terms of the Super-Simultaneity option from the aforementioned Pyramid article.

That said, maybe I was a little too quick to dismiss Sorcery's Hardcore Improvisation: thinking about it some more, I could see keeping that option, but applying Skills For Everything to it: that is, you don't do straight Will Rolls for Hardcore Improv when the core advantage is RPM-based; you do a Will-based Path roll — possibly with the Ritual Modifiers found in Powers p.178: whole it's listed as a special rule for Spirit powers, it's arguably less about spirits and more about ritual magic. Note that whole they echo similar modifiers in the RPM system, they're not the same; in particular, none of Powers' Ritual Modifiers penalize you; so there's no need for a Ritual Adept advantage to negate its penalties.