50 State Initiative Discussion

[chrismountenay]

Hey, the Howard datafile is great, though the funniest I've read yet is by far the Captain.

Another question. Komodo has a self-healing power, but no Stamina. If such powers work as has been described recently on this site (i.e. you spend a whole turn and remove stress if it's equal to your Stamina, or otherwise step it down), can she only step down stress? The SFX seems more consistent with other readings of Healing Factor that imply that you heal all the physical stress that's been done to you. Thoughts?

[Cam]

Thanks for all of the comments so far, folks. We may end up implementing some changes before the book goes off to the printer. This book had a bunch of proofreaders but it looks like we still missed a couple of things!

Cheers,
Cam

[Spatula]

Ollie Osnick! The Spectacular Spider-Kid! I didn't realize he was in here! "Steel Spider" pfffft... nice try, Ollie.

[Gorion1928]

I just got a copy off of DTRPG, skimming the datafiles now before I get to the real meat of the book. I notice that Komodo doesn't have any enhanced Stamina powers to go with her healing SFX. Error? Might be on more heroes too, it is kind of late so I'm barely taking this in as I go.

[Spatula]

Finished reading through the book. I liked the scenarios, milestones, and unlockables (especially the Heroes for Hire unlockables!). I do wish the Initiative chapter had some milestones and unlockables, but I am guessing they got crowded out by all of the datafiles?

I'm also wondering if we got Watcher instead of player datafiles for the different Initiative teams because there wasn't enough info on most of the characters to make personal milestones out of.

Each chapter is understandably somewhat brief, and aside from the aforementioned lack of milestones and unlockables from the Initiative chapter, I don't have a problem with that. However, I would have liked to have seen some campaign arc ideas for each chapter. Just a page or even a paragraph with some ideas on where to take the game when playing one of the presented teams.

Overall, I would rate this as a good buy, especially for the price of the PDF. The additional characters and scenarios are very useful additions to the Civil War book.

[basspunk66]

I have already burned the Howard the Duck datafile from my PDF printout, on principle.

Speaking of which, let me start the "printer-friendly datafiles?" for this supplement.

One of my players would come at you with flaming torch, and freshly sharpened pitchfork. When he found out Howard the Duck was in it, we were sure he'd marry the pdf.

[arosslaw]

I posted this in the general forum, before I found this thread.

Why don't Colleen Wing and Elsa Bloodstone have a "durability" die along with their "weapon" die in their power sets? Everyone else with power sets representing weapons (Misty Knight, Paladin, Swordsman) have durability. Heck, even Bullseye got durability with this power set, and his represents picking up whatever is lying around.

I also wish there were more than two levels of skills as having seen three books now, there just does not seem enough distinction, particulary as to the combat skill.

[Jack]

I posted this in the general forum, before I found this thread.

Why don't Colleen Wing and Elsa Bloodstone have a "durability" die along with their "weapon" die in their power sets? Everyone else with power sets representing weapons (Misty Knight, Paladin, Swordsman) have durability. Heck, even Bullseye got durability with this power set, and his represents picking up whatever is lying around.

I also wish there were more than two levels of skills as having seen three books now, there just does not seem enough distinction, particulary as to the combat skill.

Actually, Bullseye's represents Adamantium bone implants (at least that was my intent, but since it was the only real benefit to those I figured it would get folded into the single powerset), but I get your larger point.

It's up to Cam, of course, but I think it would make sense to have Enhanced Durability to represent parrying and such (one of my drafts might even have had one...I can't recall at the mo). Though arguably the Mistress of the Blade gives her if not Durability, a reaction based boost that compensates somewhat and allows her to set up things.

Also, in my games I've let some folks parry with Weapon when it seems appropriate. For example, my Black Widow player defines her powerset as a number of weapons and if she describes herself blocking a sword with a knife or something I've been letting that stand, especially since she could just as easily be using other d8s in the same Powerset (Swingline to zip out of the way, etc...)

[Cam]

Yes, you can usually roll in Weapon if you think it's representing a parry or block with a weapon like a katana. In some cases it doesn't make any sense, such as with a character using an assault rifle. You'd also not be able to roll it in as defense against (say) automatic weapons and energy blasts.

Cheers,
Cam

[Spatula]

So the revised book is up on DriveThruRPG, yay!

I see that Guardian's powers have changed. He has a new Leech power to take powers away from someone, and can then use Mimic on someone he's drained powers from. It works, but it feels very inelegant to me in that it takes 2 actions. And that's not really an accurate model of the source material, IMO.

I wonder if this is some kind of "game-balance" thing, like it would be unfair to encapsulate both into one power. If so, that seems a bit out of place in MHR, which has all sorts of power imbalances baked into the system.

I think I would modify it like so:

SFX: Absorb Power. When using Leech to create a Power Loss complication on a target with the Mutant Limit, add a d6 and step up the effect die. On a successful action, gain a Mimic asset equal to your effect die. (maybe spend 1 PP to get the asset?)