Basically I'll be posting power variations and new powers/abilities I've used. Feel free to post your own modifications.

Powers

Optional Rule - Pushing Powers

Pushing Powers: Characters may push the effectiveness of powers (increased damage, range, carrying capacity, etc.) by 50% at double the normal PR cost.

Example: Powerhouse is desperately trying to free a woman trapped under debris, from a fallen building. Normally his carrying capacity wouldn’t allow him to lift up the steel beam pinning her trapping her in the building. He expends double the normal of endurance/power required, allowing him to exceed him normal limits by 50%, and he successfully lifts the beam, freeing the grateful citizen.

Awareness: The character is aware of information that would not normally be known through conventional methods. Some examples include knowing how many pages are in a book without reading it; knowing how many jelly beans are in a jar; knowing which switch turns on a complex computer system; knowing where a specific office is located in a building he’s never been in before; etc. The exact limits of the power must be worked out with the GM.

Base/HQ: The character has a base or headquarters. The base is equipped with 1d4 special features. Additional features may be incorporated into the structure using the standard inventing points rules.

Body Power:
- Lack of Weakness: The character is immune to the affects of Weakness Detection.

- Heightened Immune System: The character is extremely resistant to the affects of diseases and poisons. When used as a defense, it defends as Willpower.

- Heightened Recovery: You recover Power at twice the normal recovery rate.

- Heightened Reflexes: The character receives a 3d10 Initiative Bonus

- Retarded Aging: You age at a much slower rate than others.

- Hardened Defenses: The character is resistant to the effects Drains and Absorption.

- Heightened Stamina: 2x your normal Power

Gadgets

A) The character has a device, or devices, that simulate 1d6+2 powers. The maximum number of uses/charges would be limited to 2d4 charges per day, per device . Additional devices can be created/constructed by using the standard inventing procedures.

B) Gadgeteer: The Character is a mechanical/scientific genius, who's capable of creating/manufacturing 1d6 single use devices per day. The devices can be used to simulate powers, or any other function the player can reasonably justify to the GM.

Gadgets A would allow you to construct a utility belt, trick arrows, etc. Gadgets B would allow you to play a character like Gizmo, or Hank Pym of the Avengers.

Heightened Senses: Combat Sense - Functions as a combination of Heightened Attack and Heightened Defense, giving bonuses to accuracy, damage, and defense. The character receives an initial bonus of +1 to hit, +1 damage, and a -1 to be hit. The character will receive and additional +1 or -1 bonus that can be added or deducted from his accuracy, damage, or defense, per level. The defense bonus only applies while the character is conscious and mobile.

Example: Battlemaster has is a 1st level character w/Combat Sense. He initially receives +1 to hit, +1 to damage, and -1 to be hit. At 2nd level, he gets an additional point, and uses it to increase his accuracy. So, now he’s got a +1 damage modifier, +2 accuracy, and -1 to be hit.

Magic Spells - The maximum number of spells a character my have is = to his INT score.

Another variant I've considered using is based on the "Power Pool" concept from Champions. Instead of having a specified list of spells to choose from, the character would basically be allowed to come up with spells on the fly. As long as he could reasonably articulate what he wants to do to the GM, and has the power available to cast the spells, he could do it. Although, I'd place several restrictions on this version to keep it from getting out of hand, and I'd also have the GM set the power requirements for the actual spells. But I think it's simulate some of the things I've seen Dr. Strange and Dr. Fate pull off.

Here's a few spells I thought up, and figured some you guys might like to use them.

Inferno: On a successful attack role, the target is completely engulfed in mystical flames, which will continue to burn until extinguished, the spell caster is killed, or otherwise incapacitated. Attacks as Flame Power doing 1d12 damage per turn. Range is equal to Intelligence + Endurance. PR=8 per turn maintained.

Fireball: Attacks as Flame Control doing 1d12 damage. Range is equal to Intelligence + Endurance. PR=3 per an attack.

Sphere of Protection: Creates a mystical barrier that completely surrounds the caster. Defends as Force field. PR=1 per square inch covered by the sphere, +1 per 2 points of damage repulsed. The maximum area that can be covered is per the Force Field rules in the rule book.

The Eagle’s Claw: Attacks as Natural Weaponry for HTH+1d6 damage. R=INT x 2, PR=1

Spirit Drain: Victim is affected as though they were hit with a Devitalization Ray attack. R=INT x 2, PR=3

Iron Will: Allows the spellcaster to defend against mystical and psionic attacks as though they had Willpower (A). R = Self, PR=2 per turn.

Banshee’s Wale: Attacks as a Sonic attack inflicting 1d12 damage. PR=2, R= INT x 2

Acid Rain: Menacing looking dark clouds rapidly form, before releasing a highly corrosive rain storm on the victim. Attacks as Chemical Power.2d8 damage, R=INT+END, PR=4

Aura of Fear: Attacks as Emotion Control/Fear, the spell caster generates an aura that will cause those coming into contact with it, to recoil in fear. R=CHRx2, Max area affected = Power/2”, PR=2 per turn.

Command: Attacks as Mind Control. The spellcaster may issue a specific verbal command such as “Run away”, attack your friend, etc. The victim must save vs. INT, or will be forced to comply with the spellcaster’s wishes. R=CHRx2, PR=12

Enrage: Attacks as Emotion Control. Area affected = CHR”. Anyone in the affected area must save vs. INT or, become enraged, attacking both friend and foe alike, until they either make successful save, or be come exhausted. R=INT+ENDx2, PR=20

Jaylyn’s Merciful Touch: The spell caster is capable of mystically healing the wounds of anyone he lays hands on. The spellcaster must be in direct physical contact with the person he is attempting to heal, and must do nothing else for one full turn. If successful, the spell will heal 3d10 points of damage. R=Touch, PR=8

Jaylyn’s Healing Slumber: Allows the spellcaster to slip into a coma like state. While in this state, the spell caster will heal wounds and recover power at an accelerated rate. They’ll recover HP, at their standard rate, each hour, instead of per day. While in this state, the spellcaster is completely defenseless. PR=15.

Mirror Image: This spell creates a mirror image of the spellcaster. Treat as Illusions (A). R=INTx2, PR=2+1 per each additional image created. 

Mystic Bolt: Attack as Power Blast, 1d20 damage, R=ENDx2, PR=3

Sleep: Attacks as Mind Control. Victim must save vs. INT on d100 or sleep for 1d8 hrs. R=INT, PR=10

Steel Skin: The spellcaster’s skin becomes impervious to harm. The spellcaster is treated as though thy had 30 points of Invulnerability. R=Self, PR=8 per turn.

Thunderclap: When the spellcaster claps his hands, a massive sonic boom is created. Attacks as Sonic Abilities. 1d12 damage, R=END, PR=3

Tokor’s Mighty Fist: A giant mystical fist forms from the ether, allowing the spellcaster to strike his enemies from afar. Attacks as Force Field. 1d12 damage, R=ENDx2, PR=2

Nauseate: The character has the ability to induce nausea in others (either mentally, through some sort of physical means). Nauseate attacks as Emotion Control and follows the same rules (see p. 12) with the following modifications. Range = Intelligence, PR=4 per successful attack. Affected characters are at -4 on all of their attack rolls.

Heightened Mental Abilities: The character has 1d4+2 special abilities from the following list:

- Photographic Memory
- Sense of Direction: You always know what direction you’re traveling in.
- Absolute Sense of Time: You always know what time it is and how much time has passed.
- Speed Reader
- Universal Translator
- Lightning Calculator

Perks: The character has 1d4+2 Perks, chosen form the list below.

- Ally: The character can call on a powerful ally (the FBI, the military, etc.) for help.
- Advantageous Background:
(A) Wealthy: The character is filthy rich (think Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark rich)
(B) Famous: Adds to the character’s Public Standing
- Contacts: The character has contacts in the business world, underworld, government, etc. that provide him with information.
- Diplomatic Immunity: Because of the character’s status (ambassador, prince, etc.), he’s is immune from criminal prosecution.
- Servant: The character employees a servant
- Security Clearance: The character has access to secret/classified information.

Weakness Detection: The character receives a +4 damage bonus instead of an accuracy/attack bonus.

New Weaknesses

Cursed: Simply put, the universe hates this character. For whatever reason, the character suffers one calamity after another, his whole life being one long run of lousy luck. The cosmos doesn’t want him dead, it wants him to suffer. The specifics are left up to the individual GM and player to work out.

John wrote on Apr 22^nd, 2009 at 5:19pm:


Nope, the maximum I'd let anyone push his power, was 50% increase in effectiveness, for 2x the power. So if you normally do 1d20 damage, and you push it, you'd increase the damage rolled by 50%. So if you've declared you're pushing your Power Blast, and roll an 11 for damage, you'd increase the damage by 6 points (5.5 rounded up), for a total of 17 points of damage.

If you want to tinker with some mechanic for increasing effectiveness even higher, feel free. I personally feel that after certain point you should start taking HP to boost your power levels, as that's the way it's usually depicted in comics.

Yep, it makes sense to me, the example is pretty clear.

I would be very interested in this.   Skills are the biggest thing that V&V lacked.

Skills

The maximum number of skill’s a character can learn is limited to his Int score, unless he has some type of special abilities/powers. So a character with an Int of 12, would be able to have twelve skills.

Skill Rolls
Base % chance = 70% + 3% per the appropriate attribute score over 11 - any difficulty modifiers. Training in a skill adds 5% per level.

Example: Doc Mayhem has the Robotics skill. His base % chance for performing a skill is 70%. His Intelligence score is 23 (the attribute the skill is based on) , or 12 points over the minimum, so he receives a bonus (12 x 3 = 36, or a 36% bonus for his INT). 70% (his base %) + 36% (his bonus) = 106% chance to perform any Robotics related task, minus any difficulty modifiers the GM applies.

----- Skill List -----

Area Knowledge
Accuracy: +1 to hit
Animal Handling
Civics
Climbing
Computers
Crime
Disguise
Driving
Electronics
Escape Artist
Espionage
Explosives
Fast Talk
Gambling
Interrogation
Investigation
Firearms
Knowledge
- Business
- Civics
- Criminology
- Occultism
- Philosophy
- Politics
- Psychology
- Religion (pretty much anything you can think of)
Language
Mechanic
Medicine
Navigation
Parachuting
Performing Arts
Pilot
Profession
- Fire Fighter
- Law Enforcement
- Soldier (a few common examples from comics)
Science
- Cybernetics
- Robotics (just two examples)
SCUBA Diving
Stealth
Street Wise
Survival
Swimming
Tactics
Tracking - 3% per hour since the initial trail was made. -5% per hour for each hour of rain/snow that has fallen.

John wrote on Apr 28^th, 2009 at 10:18pm:


V&V, is pretty simple, and from everything I've read, Jeff and Jack intended it to be that way. Most of the math work is done in character creation, with the rest of the game being pretty free flowing. I figure I'd take a cue from them, and just give the Skills enough detail that players and GMs could work out specifics themselves, and basically go with whatever fits their specific style of play.

I love that gadjets power.  Do you mind if I incorporate it into my game?

I went back and added a couple of powers I left out, and a second version of the Luck power, I had in a different file. One of these days I really need to consolidate all this stuff into one file.

I'd really like to hear what you guys think of my probability control power, as I have yet to actually use it in a game. Does it sound workable to you guys?

dsumner wrote on May 4^th, 2009 at 8:03pm:


Sounds a lot like John's Karma power. I'll let him explain it since i'm tired

I stole the idea from some Dungeons and Dragon's forum years ago.  It works like this:


Karma:   This is something ONLY player characters can use.   For every 100 experience points a character spends, they can affect a percentile die roll by 5 % and normal roles by 1 die point.   To use this, they tell the GM the desired roll, and then they deduct the experience points and then roll vs. Charisma to see if it worked.  If the d20 is equal or lower then the player’s charisma, then the karma is successful.  If the roll is above the player’s charisma, they lost the experience. If the roll is ten above the player’s charisma, it is bad Karma and the opponent gets the bonus.  If a player rolls a 20 on a karma roll, then they loose a charisma point.  Karma is the only die roll a player cannot  use karma on.  Ex: Mega Man needs a 10 to hit, he rolls a 12 so he spends the karma, successfully rolls under his Charisma and lowers that die roll to a 10. The already deducted 200 experience points were worth it! Or : Mega Man really wants a knockout, he rolls a 20 on a knockout role but wants to lower it to a 5. He needs three Karma points to lower the percentage by 15%. He deducts the 300 experience, rolls against his Charisma, passes that role and hopes the 5 is a good enough knockout role.)

John wrote on May 9^th, 2009 at 7:14pm:


I've made a couple of similar metapowers (I have to dig up my doc file to get the specifics), where you have a floating pool of points that you can use to enhance or penalize rolls.

Quote:



I use inventing points for "hunches".   IP's are pretty much  brilliant ideas yet to be realised.   Your brilliant idea can be a hunch, hint,  guess, skill, invention, new spell,  learn a language or what ever you can successfully argue for.

I see the cellular disruption almost being like a reversed vibratory power. Instead of vibrating oneself (as a defense, or an attack, or to pass through walls, etc.) you vibrate the material instead. Or if someone has both vibratory and death touch, maybe they can train to combine the two and get something like cellular disruption as you list it but adding in more dmg from the vibratory effect.

Doctor Foom wrote on Jul 10^th, 2009 at 9:49am:


I love your stretching rule.  It answers so many questions I have had with the power in the past.  Simple and elegant!

Energy Conversion: The character can convert one type of energy into another (Sound into light).

Energy Field/Damage Field: The character radiates a field of energy from his body capable of inflicting 1d12 damage to any object coming in contact with it. Attacks as Force Field, 1d12 damage, PR=1 per turn.

John wrote on Jul 10^th, 2009 at 7:16pm:


I figure it'll allow you to do characters like Dazzler.