[Powers] Nearly Ordinary

Engurrand · 03-29-2019, 04:12 PM

***Soliciting feedback, thoughts, suggestions, etc***

Nearly Ordinary
This is the power shared by Indiana Jones, Laura Croft, John McClane, Nathan Drake, and Sky Captain. This power may be available to all the PCs in a setting, but it is also suitable to superhero games featuring Powers, for the hero (or villain) who doesn’t have any. The unifying feature of this power is that all these traits are things an ‘ordinary’ human could get away with in a cinematic setting. Some of them represent the trait version of story features usually hand-waved away in that genre, like the Lucky Satchel. People who are Nearly Ordinary have no superpowers that can be detected or countered through anti-powers or superscience - their traits are extensions of their mundane skill and ruggedness with a liberal dose of intentionally fuzzy logic. If any of these advantages may be interpreted as a supernatural power, it is not. Consequently, all of the traits are vulnerable to stringent testing, or even just sharp observation. This is countermeasure! If someone devises a test to see the limits of your powers, then you don’t have any powers. They stop working when carefully observed! Specifically, if, at the GM’s discretion, a neutral bystander would likely think that your power was supernatural, then you can’t do it.

Power Modifier
Mundane countermeasures (-10%), Cosmic, doesn’t register as a power (+10%) = (0%).

Leveled Traits
Bullet Defense [3/5/10/22]
Bullets just don't hit you where it hurts. You're much less likely than your average Jack to end up with a bullet shaped full-stop in the middle of your action paragraph. Heroic fiction doesn't usually end that way, and yours is a heroic story.
Level 1: Luck (enemies reroll headshots 1/hour) [3]
Level 2: Luck (enemies reroll headshots and vitals shots 1/hour) [5]
Level 3: Injury Tolerance, No Brain + No Vitals [10]
Level 4: Injury Tolerance, No Brain + No Vitals, and Luck (Enemies reroll gun hits 1/hr) [22]

Cool Don’t See The Boom [10/20/38/50]
As long as your eyes are averted, you take reduced damage from explosions. You must first perform a ready maneuver doing some cinematically appropriate action (e.g. fastening a firehose around your waist to jump off a building, wrapping yourself in a cloak, or merely donning shades). Thus, this is no use against explosions you don’t know are coming. At level 1 damage resistance is ½ and you must succeed a dodge - you must leap desperately away from the boom. At level two you don’t need to dodge - simply turn your back and succeed your ready (eg don your shades). At level three take one third damage and there is no ready maneuver - you need only not see the explosion, it doesn’t matter how - tilt the brim of your hat, or turn your back and smirk into the camera. At level four, you take only one quarter damage from explosions as long as you shield your eyes.
Injury Tolerance Damage Reduction ½ (Accessibility (Only attacks you don’t see) (+1); Limited Defense (Explosions) (-40%); Require Active Defense (Dodge) (-40%); Takes Extra Time 1 (+10%)). At level two remove Requires Active Defense. At level three, increase Damage Reduction to ⅓ and remove Takes Extra Time. Level Four adds Damage Reduction ¼.

Ghostly Movement (Cinematic Speed) [20/30/38/46]
As on Horror page 20, plus: Your movement is the result of ninja-like skill. You can only move through barriers that you could conceivably pass using your skills in one second. Make the skill rolls for each obstacle as you discover them, moving sequentially through the obstacles exactly as if you were doing so without the Warp advantage. For example, to pass a wall, the wall must have an air-vent that you might fit through and you must have enough Move to reach the vent and get through it. You actually unscrew that vent and climb through it, you just do so very quickly. You get perception rolls to notice complications, may apply additional skills, and can stop whenever you choose. For example, if the vent has a laser tripwire, then you first roll to open the vent, then to notice the wire, then to disarm it, and you may stop at any time, leaving you that far into the process. Any failed roll produces its normal consequences.
At level one, you may only use this power in a space that you are familiar with - take 1 minute to familiarize yourself with a medium sized room, or equivalent.
At level two, you do not require familiarity.
At level three, you may pay a fatigue to multiply your range by 1.5.
At level four, you may pay a fatigue to multiply your range by 2.
Warp (Accessibility (Only to places you could otherwise reach in one second) (+2); Accessibility (Only while unobserved) (+2); Extra Carrying Capacity (Medium Encumbrance); Preparation Required, Range Limit (10 yards)) [20] Level Two removes Preparation Required. Level 3 adds Enhanced Move Ground ½ (Accessibility (Only during Ghostly Movements) (+1) Costs Fatigue 1). Level 4 makes it Enhanced Move Ground 1.

It’s Not That Bad [15/20/25/50/60]
When receiving first aid, your wounds turn out to be substantially less serious than they at first appeared: at level one, first aid recovers an additional 1d+1 hp regardless of TL (in addition to the normal first aid effects). At level two the amount recovered increases to 2d+1. At level three, one minute of bandaging adds +2 hp instead of the normal +1, and you heal 4d+1 after a first aid roll (still in addition to all normal first aid effects). At level four, a one minute bandaging roll heals 30 hp, and a fifteen minute first aid roll heals 450 hp and is sufficient for any injury! At level five, a one minute bandaging roll can heal 60 hit points and can revive a rugged hero from the brink of death to full health. Note that, due to the limitations of the power modifier, if the severity of your injury is clearly established in advance of the first-aid attempt, then this advantage doesn’t work. It only works on injuries that might not have been that bad. If the villain stabs you in the vitals and knows it, then it clearly was that bad. You’ll need to tell a heroic recovery story that takes the normal amounts of time. This is likely to come up in cases where bandaging isn’t possible immediately after the injury: if you’re limping around for hours, or found unconscious at the bottom of a cliff, then clearly the injury really was that bad.
Level 1: Regeneration, Fast (1 hp/minute) (Accessibility (only during first aid) -30%, takes extra time 2 -20%, only once per injury -20%). Level 2: reduce Takes Extra Time to level 1. Level 3: no Takes Extra Time. Level 4: Increase to Very Fast Regeneration but add Takes Extra Time 1. Level 5 removes Takes Extra Time again.

Legal Immunity [8/15/23]
Your legal immunity is granted by really great press and reputation - as long as you are considered a hero, you can ignore some or all laws with no repercussion. At level one, you may get in non-lethal-force fights or minor breaking and entering without worrying about what the police will think. At level two, your benefit-of-the-doubt protection extends to self defence fights and theft. At level three, you may ride a motorcycle through Harvard campus while gun-battling nazis, with untold property damage and reckless endangerment and no legal consequences whatsoever, as long as you behave like a hero.

**More to follow. Post 1 of 2.**

Engurrand · 03-29-2019, 04:13 PM

Limb Protection [10/22/34]
Your limbs take reduced damage. At Level 1, it takes twice as much damage to cripple a limb, and they cannot be Permanently Crippled or Dismembered. At level two, your limbs enjoy 1d DR every time they might take damage. Treat the results as lucky misses that leave impressive looking flesh wounds or bruises. At level three, it’s 2d Damage Resistance.

Lucky Satchel [24/32/48/72]
This is a messenger bag made of heavy leather (12 hp and 3 DR), weighing three pounds. In 1d6 seconds of ready maneuvers, you may draw from the bag any item you own that weighs less than 5 pounds, provided that item is not currently hidden, thrown away, or locked up. You may also put things into the bag - any item weighing less than 5 lbs vanishes inside without adding to encumbrance. This isn’t true teleportation - the items you pull from the satchel ‘were in there all along.’ For example, you could pull a brace of throwing knives from your pouch, if you own such a thing, but you could not throw a knife and then pull the same knife from your bag to throw it again. Enemies who search you will find the bag, and may produce items from it with Search rolls. If it is lost, you must recover this specific bag - another will not do! If it is destroyed, then any unique items stored in it are not, though they may be difficult to find (e.g. scattered over a hillside, or stolen by enemies).
At level 1 the bag is specialized: pick one of Food, Clothes, Documents, Ammo, Grenades, one specific weapon category, or one specific skill that would benefit from equipment, such as Mechanic or Surgery.
At level 2, it is no longer specialized by skill, though the other limitations still apply.
At level 3, it only takes 1 ready maneuver to retrieve an object, and you may roll Fast-Draw (Gizmo or appropriate Weapon) to reduce drawing an item to a free action.
At level 4, it is no longer breakable. It can be lost or stolen, but never destroyed! Treat this as plot protection.
(Snatcher) (Accessibility (Nothing you've hidden or locked up) (+1); Gadget/Breakable: DR 3-5; Gadget/Breakable: Size -3 or -4; Gadget/Can Be Stolen: Thief must win a Quick Contest of DX or ST; Gadget/Unique; No Fatigue Cost; Specialized (-10%) Recall; Reduced Time (+2)) [24] Level Two removes Specialized. Level Three increases Reduced Time to 3, Level 4 removes the breakable limitations.

Map Maven [6/10/17/20]
You never forget a map, and can glean extraordinary detail from studying them. At the first level, any map you have studied you remember forever - you don’t need to carry it! Proper examination of all the relevant details takes one minute - if you’re in a hurry, you may roll Speed Reading applying Taking Less Time. If you succeed, then you may act as if you are carrying that map. If you fail, apply your margin of failure to any roll requiring the map. At level two, after you have memorized a map, one more second thinking about it lets you roll Area Knowledge for the mapped region as if you had a point in it. You may only hold one map in your head at a time. To switch to a different map you’ve seen, spend a minute and roll IQ+Talent (you can remember the map, but it still takes a minute to study it and sort out the details). At level three, you can hold two maps in your head at a time (E.G. one of a country, and one of its capital city), and both supply area knowledge at IQ+1. At level four, you keep a map in your head at all times of everywhere you’ve personally been, and this map tracks resources you know about and places of interest - you will never get lost in areas you’ve visited before.
Level one: Photographic Memory (Accessibility (only maps) (4)) [6]
Level two: Photographic Memory (Accessibility (only maps) (4)) [6] + Modular Abilities (Super Memorization 1 slot, 1 point; Limited to Area Knowledge Skills (-50%); [4] = [10]
Level three: Photographic Memory (Accessibility (only maps) (4)) [6] + Modular Abilities (Super Memorization 2 slot, 2 point; Limited to Area Knowledge Skills (-50%); [11] = [17]
Level Four: Photographic Memory (Accessibility (No details except on maps) (1)) [9] + Modular Abilities (Super Memorization 2 slot, 2 point; Limited to Area Knowledge Skills (-50%); [11] = [20]

Rugged [9/23/37/45]
Fit + Extra HP 2 [9]
Very Fit + Extra HP 4 [23]
Very Fit + High Pain Threshold + Extra HP 6 [37]
Very Fit + High Pain Threshold + Extra HP 10 [45]

Shake It Off [20/45/60]
Get to cover, spend a fatigue, and then you regenerate 1 hp per second of concentration, but never the last point of damage from a particular wound - every injury always leaves at least 1 point of damage. At level 1 this only works on minor injuries. At Level 2 it works on any injury up to full HP. At level 3 there is no limit. As with It’s Not That Bad (above) don’t forget that, due to the power modifier, this works by cinematic hand-wavy-ness not by actual regeneration. Your wounds don’t close magically, they just turn out to have been something you could shake off.
Regeneration, Very Fast: 1HP/Sec (Costs FP (1); Accessibility (Can't heal last point of damage.) (+1); Accessibility (Only in cover) (+1); Accessibility (Minor Wounds Only) (+4); Requires Concentrate) [20] Successive levels reduce the accessibility (Minor Wounds) to (Max HP) to nothing.

Tumble Dummy [10/15/20/30]
You take reduced damage from impacts with the environment. You automatically succeed any Acrobatics roll to subtract five yards from your falling distance, and at level 1 you may make a DX check to half damage from any fall from height. At level 2 this protection extends to include any impact with the environment, for example, if you are thrown into a building by a giant ape, or from a moving car. At level three, make all your rolls to recover from crashes at +1. At Level 4, reroll any critical failures.
Catfall [10]. Level Two add Cosmic (additional coverage (+50%)); Level Three add Higher Purpose (Survive Impacts) [5]; Level Four add Luck (Aspected to Critical Failures on Surviving Impacts (-30%) with the special feature that this luck grants one reroll not two, but protects against critical failure no matter how often that occurs.

That's all I have for now.

naloth · 03-29-2019, 04:34 PM

First, off, these are quite enjoyable and I could see using some of the ideas.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Engurrand

Power Modifier
Mundane countermeasures (-10%), Cosmic, doesn’t register as a power (+10%) = (0%).

This seems off. If you can, for example, count your vitals being missed regardless, then there's not really a countermeasure. Likewise, "doesn't register" is already covered as Low/No Signature for +10/+20% (or +5% per -2 to notice) for a higher value.

I'd charge a flat +20% if others don't notice that you never take vitals hits on top of "IT: No Vitals". I'd say +10% is worth others never bother to target those areas.

Luck, of course, doesn't need a modifier since you appear lucky to anyone knowing what the outcome should usually be.

Engurrand · 03-29-2019, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by naloth

First, off, these are quite enjoyable and I could see using some of the ideas.

Cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by naloth

This seems off. If you can, for example, count your vitals being missed regardless, then there's not really a countermeasure. Likewise, "doesn't register" is already covered as Low/No Signature for +10/+20% (or +5% per -2 to notice) for a higher value.

With regards to the countermeasure, it is 'stringent testing or close observation' which I deemed to be at least as limiting as the technological countermeasures described in Powers.

In the case of bullet protection, the countermeasure might come up only in cases where somebody calls you out on it. "My my you are very lucky Mr. Bond. But just how lucky really?" BLAM. "Hm... Not so lucky it would seem." You would also not get your bullet protection if you're tied to a table with a gun to your head, for example. The same with limb protection: if you stick your hand in a grinder, you don't get your DR, because you don't actually have DR. This is only worth -5% to my eye. [EDIT: sorry, typo. I meant -10%]

With regards to the 'not visible as a power' portion, I eyeballed a 10% enhancement because Low/no signature is for traits which usually are extremely obvious, like innate attacks which default to a sound like a gunshot. The traits on this list are all built from advantages without signatures by default (unless I'm missing something). I could be convinced to leave this off.

Kelly Pedersen · 03-29-2019, 05:09 PM

I don't think "stringent testing cancels this" is worth the full -10% for "mundane countermeasures", unless the intent is more "anyone watching and trying to see how this works" counts. But the impression I'm getting is more "under rigorous scientific testing conditions, this doesn't work". For that, I'd use the -5% for "specialized technology" countermeasures. In this case, the "specialized technology" is effectively a science lab and statistical analysis.

I agree with Naloth that "Cosmic: Doesn't register as a power" is wrong, but personally, I'd say that it's not a requirement at all. Whether something registers as a power is, I feel, a "setting switch" that is determined by each individual power. There's no reason to assume that every power will have some way to detect it, so building a "can't be detected" enhancement into the power modifier isn't necessary.

If you want something to adjust the modifier back up to +0%, I'd suggest using a required behavior - if you use a -5 point disadvantage like Workaholic, and say that it only requires a day of effort to recover and that powers only go away slowly, enough to give you warning in a bad situation, that nets out to +5%. Using Workaholic, you get abilities that require extra training and effort every day to maintain, but if you miss a day, you'll find an ability failing, but only after the first scene where you try to use them, and recovering them requires only a day of extra training.

Edited to add: Actually, thinking about it a bit more, that last paragraph doesn't really make sense. You shouldn't be adding +5% to an ability for a more limited version, even if isn't very limited. I was misreading the way Powers worded the "Required Disadvantages" modifier. Instead, if you're really hoping to keep the modifier at -0%, I'd suggest adding "Low Signature, Variable, +5%) (Power-Ups: Enhancements, p. 15) to give a -2 to all rolls to notice any ability being used. The penalty would apply to efforts to notice it as unusual - someone would be able to spot that the person had been hit by a gunshot but taken less damage, but the -2 would apply to Diagnosis rolls, for instance, to say "You shouldn't have been able to get shot there and only have a flesh wound".

Engurrand · 03-29-2019, 05:25 PM

Quote: