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Author Topic: [Mutants and Masterminds] Origin Story-- Pure Energy  (Read 1596 times)

Abyssal Maw

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[Mutants and Masterminds] Origin Story-- Pure Energy
« on: August 09, 2007, 10:45:45 AM »
My oldest son and I have been playing City of Heroes (the MMO) off and on over the last month or so, and the other day he got down my new revised copy of Mutants and Masterminds. I hadn't played (or run) this version yet, but I ran a short campaign with the old version a couple of years ago. Lately we've also been watching Who Wants to Be a Superhero which is the most delightfully cheesy show ever. So superheroes are on our minds.  

So we made up some characters, and just for fun, we ran an origin story for his character.

I want to say, I think the rules are greatly improved (mostly the chargen stuff, but also what you can put into saves, what gets capped where). This is a far better game than it used to be, and the original was pretty good!

So I'll talk about character generation for a bit and then a bit of the actual game:

His character was kind of a (haha, sorry kid) rip-off of Captain Marvel/Shazam, but I think it was pretty cool the way he imagined him.

The basic deal is, he has a magical bracer that when the command phrase is uttered by it's chosen owner ("Pure Energy!") he is hit by magical lightning and transforms into a superhero who can fly, has some protection, and a nice magical electrical blast power. And he gets the bracer in the first place from a dying wizard who lives in a magical house that is somehow hidden from plain sight in his home town.

I mean, it's darn close to Captain marvel, but that's ok. We're both big fans of Billy Batson.

We actually did two designs, because in it's original conception, the powers were meant to be electrical only, and he would absorb electricity from the surrounding areas, then use that power to fuel his other powers, which included boost, dazzle, and healing. But then, he decided he didn't like the vulnerability of having to absorb energy from stuff.. what if it wasn't there? What if there was a power outage?

So anyhow, the new version is based on this magical item called 'The Aegis Bracer'. We did something kinda interesting (possibly because I designed this weird) with devices as powers. The basic deal is- a device is a power, which caps out at the power level of the campaign- in our case 10. So for each point in devices, you get 5 build points.

We basicly statted up a 40 point item. (Devices 8). Then, instead of putting flight and protection on the bracer, we had them linked to his Quick Change feat.

Right now it is set up so that his bracer acts as a super shield, and makes him immune to electrical and magical damage, and also functions as a blaster kind of deal. But even if the bracer is taken away, as long as he is still in the form of Pure Energy, he gets the protection bonus and flight powers of his "super form".

Thus, the redesign.

The name "Pure Energy", by the way, came from the Information Society song that was playing on the radio in the car when we were talking about it.

Ok, so the origin story was he didn't have any powers, and he starts out as a student getting accosted by bullies who intimidate people and take their lunch money. We kinda went through this part real quick without ever referring to the system. His secret identity is "Ted Sparks".

Then at some point, he sees an old man (the wizard!) getting mugged. He runs over to help, as the bullies are escaping and helps the wizard back to his house, at which point I kinda improvised what is now a main feature of the story: the idea of the hidden society of magical beings that lives beneath the notice of normal humans. This is kinda the Harry Potter idea. Anyhow, the wizard thanks him, and shows him his weird "haunted house", which is all full of weird stuff (like carnivorous plants, and books that talk, etc). I kinda played the wizard up as funny and senile. But then, suddenly the house is attacked by cultists armed with crossbows who come crashing in through the windows.

The cultists demand to know where the "Aegis Bracer" is..  and the old man begins talking to them, bluffing them. as the cultists begin trashing the place, he secretly slips the bracer to Ted.

"I give this freely to you. Use it wisely and only for good. The command phrase is.. 'Pure energy'"

So Ted runs back downstairs to accost the cultists. He yells out "Pure energy!", gets hit by magical lightning, and turns into this hero character.

The cultists point their weapons at Pure Energy. It's battle time!

I actually used the stats for "cultists" right out of the M&M book.

Pure energy won initiative, and takes aim at the first cultist, rolling a natural 20. I had to check the rules on that. The basic deal is, a critical hit on a "mook" type character pretty much knocks him out. There is no rolling to confirm.

So bam, thats' one down, and we described how the bad guy got knocked off his feet backwards and over the couch.

The other two fired at him, and one hit, however the redesign also gave PE a  chance to 'deflect' incoming missiles with this bracer thingy.  So we tried that out. The roll was not that high- he had to make an 11 or higher, but he missed. So the arrow hit him and achieved a 'bruised' condition.

Since he opted to deflect, he missed his turn, and the bad guys got to fire again. Which they did, also both missing this time.

Pure Energy ran laterally, blasting magical lightning out, and laid out cultist #2 in a single shot. The damage save from his blast was pretty good.  This only left one guy.

He fired, and PE opted to try deflection again. This time he deflected successful, and used his 'redirect' option to deflect the shot back at the guy who fired it. It hit, and knocked out cultist #3.

Then we ran sort of a farewell scene where the old wizard says something like "My time here is short, but I will take you on as an apprentice. These cultists came from a mad villain called Serpentine. He is ruthlessly seeking the Aegis Bracer, and you are in much danger.."

(Again I improvised the name, but now I will be designing a villian. And I guess I am still stuck on Harry Potter with the whole snake theme.)

And after that we wrapped it up. It was really quick, but had combined that short origin with chargen and two designs for the Pure Energy character.

Anyhow, it was a lot of fun. Afterwards we also designed a character (nominally for me, but probably just as a guest hero) called 'Moonwing', which I saw as kind of a devices-based adventurer.  I got kinda fascinated with the device building rules (The Aegis Bracer we put together for PE itself is actually a device as well) and we made up some cool gear for the new guy.  

I look forward to running this again. Superheroes are fun.

Tonight ... D&D Open Prep!
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Paka

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[Mutants and Masterminds] Origin Story-- Pure Energy
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2007, 01:20:48 PM »
Have you read Jeff (guy who wrote Bone) Smith's Shazam!  Monster Society of Evil?

Its a nifty take on Captain Marvel.

We were considering starting up an M&M game 'round these parts.  Which books do you reccommend?

Abyssal Maw

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[Mutants and Masterminds] Origin Story-- Pure Energy
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2007, 01:40:38 PM »
Quote from: Paka
Have you read Jeff (guy who wrote Bone) Smith's Shazam!  Monster Society of Evil?

Its a nifty take on Captain Marvel.

We were considering starting up an M&M game 'round these parts.  Which books do you reccommend?


I only own the core book.

Mind you, I own two copies of the new one (one was a gift) and I still have an old copy of the 1st edition. So I guess I have this three times over. But that's good because when we start the next campaign I will just pass them out.

Captain Marvel is one of my favorite characters, but I haven't read the one you are talking about. We do have the Essential Captain Marvel, though, which is where I assume my kid learned all of this stuff about magic lightning and command words and ancient wizards.

It sounds like it would be good. Judd Winick was writing one of those series and I think he's ok, even if I hated him on the Real World.

I'd really like to see a Mike Allred version of Captain Marvel. With maybe someone funny writing it.
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Paka

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[Mutants and Masterminds] Origin Story-- Pure Energy
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2007, 03:15:17 PM »
Quote from: Abyssal Maw


It sounds like it would be good. Judd Winick was writing one of those series and I think he's ok, even if I hated him on the Real World.

I'd really like to see a Mike Allred version of Captain Marvel. With maybe someone funny writing it.


I didn't like Winick's take on Marvel.  When Smith's four issue series is out in trade paperback, I'd recommend picking it up.

Mike Allred would do a great Marvel Family comic, no doubt.

Abyssal Maw

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[Mutants and Masterminds] Origin Story-- Pure Energy
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2007, 04:49:09 PM »
Quote from: Paka
I didn't like Winick's take on Marvel.  When Smith's four issue series is out in trade paperback, I'd recommend picking it up.

Mike Allred would do a great Marvel Family comic, no doubt.


I think Allred's kitschy art style is the closest one to Fawcetts, but it has enough gummy quirkiness on it's own to be a lot of fun. I'd also like to see a Mike Allred Plasticman.
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