DOGFACES Rule Alterations

HERO POINTS

HERO POINTS will function as normal rules, for awarding and spending. They will reset at the beginning of each "story arc" (1-5 game sessions). Carried over session to session until then. With these additions...

THE POWER POOL

In a "Band of Brothers" type effort... In the center of the table I'll have a bowl collecting HERO POINTS in a POOL. This POWER POOL will be optional to put any of your HERO POINTS in at the beginning of the game session. The difference with THESE Hero Points is... Anyone can take/use one Hero Point from the Power Pool, in addition to the normal Hero Point spending rules. You can spend this point for yourself in addition to your normal Hero Point spending rules OR spend the extra point from the Power Pool to help someone else's character. This allows a character to benefit from multiple HP in the same round for the same purpose (normally against the rules). These points DO NOT carry over session to session.

EXTRAORDINARY EFFORT

Extra effort and hero points allow characters to accomplish a lot. However, there are those times when even extra effort isn't enough and extraordinary effort is called for. In these cases, you may wish to use the following option. Once per adventure (more or less at the GM's discretion) a player can decide to use extraordinary effort. The player may spend any or all of the remaining hero points as well as up to three fatigue results (which renders a normal character unconscious). These can apply to any of their normal uses, and the benefits stack. So a hero who uses extraordinary effort, expending three hero points and suffering two fatigue results, can apply five levels of extra effort to a task. The player cannot spend hero points (if there are any remaining) to offset the fatigue from extraordinary effort.

LAST-DITCH EFFORT

This option goes beyond even extraordinary effort (previously): in addition to all the effects of extraordinary effort, characters can also suffer damage from pushing beyond the limits of their abilities. The progression is staggered, disabled, unconscious, dying, dead; each grants an additional level of extra effort. This extra effort can be combined with hero points and the expenditure of fatigue levels as desired. So a hero could gain up to five additional levels, but it means the character dies at the end of the effort. Last-ditch effort is usually reserved for truly dramatic situations where the heroes sacrifice all in order to succeed.

TEAM CHECKS

Sometimes an entire team performs a task as a unit and individual success is irrelevant. In this case, the GM may call for a team check for the task. A team check works just like a normal check, except only one character makes the check for the entire team. The situation at hand determines the character who makes the check, as follows: If only one character must succeed for the entire team to gain the benefits (e.g., one character can make a Notice check and inform others of what he finds), the character with the highest relevant bonus makes the check. If every member of the team must succeed to gain the benefits of the check (e.g., every member of the team must succeed on a Stealth check to slip past a sentry), the character with the lowest relevant bonus makes the check. In either case, if two or more characters qualify to make the check, the team can jointly choose which of them makes it. If a character goes solo, then the character is no longer a part of the team for purposes of the team check (good reason for the stealthy character to scout ahead, for example, making Stealth checks independent of the rest of the team). The character making the team skill check may spend hero points on it normally. Also, a character with the Leadership feat can spend a hero point on a team check, even if he is not the character making the check, so long as he’s a part of the team making the check, and able to interact with the character making it (to offer direction and encouragement).

SLOWED ADVANCEMENT

For slower advancement, you might not even award power points for every game session, but only for every second, third, or even fourth session. This reduces the number of points the players have to spend and allows you to keep the game at the same overall power level for much longer without the heroes becoming too limited by it. Some players may find the pace of slower advancement frustrating. To help alleviate this, consider allowing them to spend fractional power points on things like individual skill ranks or powers with fractional costs due to modifiers (see the Powers chapter of M&M for details). This helps give the players a bit more of a sense of advancement even when the pace is slow.

FLIGHT DRAWBACKS

As a halfway option between using the Flight Maneuverability system and not using it at all, this campaign takes elements of maneuverability into optional drawbacks for the Flight power, as follows: As a default, Flight has essentially perfect maneuverability. Limitations of a flier’s maneuverability are handled as drawbacks, with the usual requirement that the total value in drawbacks cannot equal the Flight power’s cost (that is, cannot reduce its effective cost below 1 power point). The following drawbacks are each worth –1 point.

• Minimum Speed: You must fly no less than half your maximum speed or you stall and begin falling. You can restart your Flight power as a move action unless other circumstances prevent it (including other drawbacks).
• Forward Only: You cannot back up while flying; you can only fly ahead.
• Wide Turns: You cannot execute a greater than 45 degree turn per move action while flying, although you can slow your flying speed while turning, if you wish.
• Runway Required: You need a level runway to take off and land. You can’t take off or land vertically or hover.

LETHAL ATTACK DEFAULT

The default given in M&M is to allow any attack to inflict non-lethal or lethal damage, depending on the attacker’s intent. In this campaign most attacks and super power attacks will be considered lethal. Most ranged attacks, most melee weapon attacks, and any attacks using Enhanced or Super Strength of +5 and above. Situations may vary and will be handled case-by-case when needed.

LETHAL PENETRATION

To make lethal damage more dangerous and effective, lethal attacks are considered Penetrating at no additional cost (other than the normal cost for an attack to be lethal. This means lethal attacks can overcome Impervious defenses. A damaging power with this extra reduces the effect of Impervious Toughness by its rank. So a rank 7 Penetrating attack reduces the Imperviousness of a target’s Toughness by 7. So rank 11 Impervious Toughness would be treated as a +11 Toughness bonus, but only 4 points of it Impervious (11 – 7). Any remaining Impervious Toughness is applied normally against the attack.

INSTANT DEATH

At the GM’s option, a Toughness saving throw against lethal damage that fails by 20 or more can result in immediate death, rather than changing the character’s condition to dying. This is suitable for campaigns with more realistic lethal damage; such massive damage is almost certain to kill poorly protected or unlucky characters. The players can, of course, still spend hero points to improve such poor Toughness saves.

LETHAL KNOCKBACK

For greater realism, lethal attacks use only half their damage bonus when determining knockback. This reflects that lethal attacks tend to have less overall “push” compared to nonlethal attacks.

TOUGHER MINIONS

A failed Toughness save normally leaves a minion unconscious or dead. In this campaign, (some) minions suffer only a stunned result from a failed Toughness save and must fail by 5 or more to be rendered unconscious or dead. This allows for occasions when heroes merely stun minions with an attack and makes minions a bit more difficult to take out in combat. Some minions are supposed to be a bit more of a threat.

TACTICAL MOVEMENT

Mutants & Masterminds combat is fairly freeform in terms of character movement. Using the basic M&M rules, but characters with movement powers can easily go anywhere in the map in a single move action! This does not suit a tactical style; in this case, this campaign implements the following. Characters have three modes of movement under the tactical variant: normal, accelerated, and all-out. These are the same for most characters (30 feet, 60 feet, and 120 feet). The difference is for movement powers. The power’s movement rank becomes its all-out movement. Its normal movement is 30 feet, plus 5 feet per rank, and its accelerated movement is twice that, 60 feet plus 10 feet per rank. So a character with Flight 6 has a normal tactical movement of 60 feet ((6 x 5) + 30), accelerated movement of 120 feet, and allout movement of 500 MPH.

HOW FAR CAN YOUR CHARACTER MOVE?

Generally, you can move your speed in a round (as a move action) and still do something, such as making an attack. You can move double your speed as a full action (two move actions). If you move all out (also a full action), you can quadruple your movement rate or more, but lose your dodge bonus to Defense. If you do something else requiring a full action, you can only take a 5-foot step. Encumbrance: A character carrying a large amount of additional weight moves slower than normal (see Carrying Capacity in the Abilities chapter of M&M).

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DOGFACES