To cover those amazing moments that do seem to happen in comics, I came up with "Spectacular Maneuvers".  Essentially they're (usually, anyway) power stunts that PCs pull off at appropriate dramatic moments during an adventure.

I've been thinking of adding something new to the mix - perhaps the ability of a player to spend an Inventing Point to add 25% to their chances.

8.8 SAVING THROWS

Spectacular Maneuvers

Every so often, superheroes would like to be able to perform an amazing use of their powers or abilities that are far beyond their normal means. Specifically we're talking about uses of powers or attributes that are not spelled out in the rulebook, but that might be possible nonetheless. Some examples might be:

-Warp would like to lift his body and all that he is carrying straight up into the air on a "telekinetic column".

-Entropy, without direct line of sight to the villain but still able to hear him, fires his energy rifle at a reflective wall, "ricocheting" the blast off 2 surfaces and around the corner to strike the bad guy.

-Portal, stranded on an island and hearing a distant rescue plane that she knows she could never fly fast enough to catch, uses the smoke off of her flame powers to make some "smoke symbols".

-Lapke, knowing that he is about to be the last hero to fall, uses his telepathic powers to send out a "warning burst" alerting everyone within a few mile radius that the Guardians have fallen.

Rather than being discouraged, the following chart gives some parameters to use when figuring out the chances of doing such a maneuver, as well as outlining some of the bonuses to be considered. Keep in mind that this phenomenon should not be abused, and as such should be done no more than once by a particular hero per role-playing session. In addition, a roll of 96-100 should cause the GM to consider some appropriately disastrous consequences.

The main factor is experience. To take a lead from comic books, Sue Storm served as not much more than a foil for villains to capture during the Fantastic Four's early years. As she gained in maturity and experience, she really grew to understand her invisibility and force field abilities, becoming arguably the most powerful member of the team. For Spectacular Maneuvers multiply the character's Level by 2.

Next to consider should be luck. Some PCs (or NPCs) are luckier than others. Some just have an off day or have an amazing run of luck. Rolling 1d4 and multiplying the result by 10 should approximate the amount of luck a person is having. Of course, if the person has some sort of powers that deal with luck the GM should add in an appropriate addition or subtraction.

1 Bad Luck
2 Poor Luck
3 Moderate Luck
4 Good Luck

Lastly, the GM will determine the difficulty. Usually this will not be more than +/-20%, but there are times, due to circumstances, where the GM might make it more.

-20 Extremely Difficult
-10 Somewhat Difficult
+10 Not Difficult
+20 Fairly Easy

Spectacular Maneuver Chance

2x Level of character xx
Luck (1d4x10) xx
Difficulty xx

Chance to succeed (on percentile roll)

SuperFriend wrote on Oct 14^th, 2009 at 12:45pm:


It's meant to be only the variables shown, so abilities and Power don't play a part (though now that you mention it, I kind of like the idea of tying in the relevant stat to it).

So let me give you an example, to hopefully make things more clear:

Let's suppose Mr. Super Hero, Level 7, rolls a "3" on his Luck roll (Moderate Luck) and the GM determines it is "Somewhat Difficult" (-10).

You now have totals of:

14 (Level x2)
30 (Moderate Luck)
-10 (Somewhat Difficult)
_____
34% chance of success

As I mentioned before, I'm now (after the discussion on Inventing Points) thinking of allowing the expenditure of those to improve the odds (it's an expendable resource and gives more value to them for characters that don't use them to invent).

I really like the idea of tying the relevant stat in as well.  Perhaps making it simply the character's Level (not times 2) and then adding in the closest Basic Characteristic (Agility for something that uses dexterity or coordination, Intelligence that uses smarts, etc.) would be better.

Even though we've had this rule for years, it's only rarely used, so it doesn't really come up that often.

As for how many times it can be used - it's meant to be done only once (one attempt), whether successful or not.

SuperFriend wrote on Oct 14^th, 2009 at 4:18pm:


That's actually a reall good point!

I'm going to crunch some numbers, to see if I can't rework the formula.