How to deal with Modular Abilities taking over

[Dragondog]

What if a player takes Modular Abilities for his character.
And then uses them so effectively that he fills every role. And does everything the others do, but better.

What can be done to make sure that the game is fun for everyone?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

What if a player takes Modular Abilities for his character.
And then uses them so effectively that he fills every role. And does everything the others do, but better.

What can be done to make sure that the game is fun for everyone?

I have found with Modular Abilities you either limit them in some fashion or disallow them.

In one of my current games I have a PC who has modular abilities at level 8 with skills only and a GM pact limitation. He only uses that power when the plot calls for it or when no one else has the skill. He's also at max level so no matter one he can't better than someone whose actual job it is to use $skill.

[Dragondog]

Level 8? Do you mean 8 points?

[ericthered]

I find modular abilities cause the most trouble when the user either has sky high IQ or when the player is double dipping on modifiers (its extra easy with modular abilities). What's the character's IQ, and what build are they using for Modular abilities? And do they also have a lot more disadvantages than everyone else?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

Level 8? Do you mean 8 points?

Yeah. Points, not levels. Sorry.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

What if a player takes Modular Abilities for his character.
And then uses them so effectively that he fills every role. And does everything the others do, but better.

What can be done to make sure that the game is fun for everyone?

You talk to the player out of the game and tell him you screwed up when you approved his character design, he's spoiling the fun for everybody, and the character either needs to be reworked or retired from being a PC.

Seriously, people should use this approach more. Trying to twist the rules so the problem goes away is going to make the player unhappy that the GM is biased against him (legitimately because it's true!), and may well fail anyway.

Allowing unrestricted Modular Abilities is rarely a good idea. It's a tool for building particularly versatile powers that do show up in some stories, but those are always either weirdly limited, possessed by characters who don't work with a team of equals, and/or used suboptimally enough the fans complain about it. Probably that last one more than anything, and note that players are really bad at voluntarily using their abilities in intentionally less effective ways for the good of the story.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Dragondog

What if a player takes Modular Abilities for his character.
And then uses them so effectively that he fills every role. And does everything the others do, but better.

I'd love to see the build that pulls this off. Modular abilities are expensive! This seems like one of those hypothetical mental exercises that end with players not getting to use versatile abilities due to irrational fear.

Most skills do not exist in a vacuum and have supporting skills and abilities working together for a better effect than a single out-of-context trait that's been temporarily adopted.

[Aldric]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

I'd love to see the build that pulls this off. Modular abilities are expensive! This seems like one of those hypothetical mental exercises that end with players not getting to use versatile abilities due to irrational fear.

Most skills do not exist in a vacuum and have supporting skills and abilities working together for a better effect than a single out-of-context trait that's been temporarily adopted.

Would really like to see the build as well, Modular Abilities are expensive (for a reason) and spending those points specializing in something would easily get you vastly better results.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Aldric

Would really like to see the build as well, Modular Abilities are expensive (for a reason) and spending those points specializing in something would easily get you vastly better results.

It's most likely to be a problem where the other characters are defined by skills rather than advantages. Modular abilities that let you duplicate any, or even most, advantages are really expensive. But skills, well, few characters have more than 8 points in any one skill, and you only use one skill at a time, so if your attributes are decent, and you have a Modular Abilities build that lets you shift to another skill every second, you can be pretty good at every skill at the moment you happen to need it at a cost that might be affordable (80 points or less) in a game that is still mostly about skills.

Modular abilities work in a Supers game because everybody has a different, and, critically [expensive] power that takes up a good chunk of the campaign point total. MA guy can't duplicate them on the same point budget as a matter of simple mathematics. It can be a problem when most character's "main" trait is not a large a fraction of that total, where the guy who spend the whole budget on MA really can duplicate any of them.

The easiest fix really is probably "Modular Abilities can't provide skills." But you can bet players of MA based characters will scream if you rule that, and I suspect some highly flexible advantages that could theoretically be problematic too.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

I'd love to see the build that pulls this off.

As would I. In a campaign where everyone builds characters who each fill multiple niches at once, I could maybe see the guy who puts everything in Modular Abilities coming out ahead at specific tasks, because he can make himself good at melee combat - and only melee combat - for a fight, while the Swashbuckler/Diplomat/Inventor and the Warrior/Thief/Scout have had to spread their points around more, and thus aren't quite as good at melee combat (and Mr. MA can also change to be The Ultimate Diplomat - complete with moustache - an amazing inventor, a master of stealth, have superhuman senses, etc... but only one at a time). Even that may be an extreme case, however, as I believe only paying [3] per point of MA comes with some exploitable (by the GM and/or OpFor) Limitations (and you'd need to be below that in the above case).