Combat Test, Round 2: Results
Posted: Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:13 pm
Jon, Lance, Zack and I spent Sunday afternoon puzzling through Mutants & Masterminds, and hopefully clarifying things a bit for the new players.
We had a Paragon and Speedster pitted against a Battlesuit and Plasma Energy Controller. By the end of the day, Plasma Boy (Zack's character) had been taken down once because he forgot to raise his defensive energy shield and once because the Speedster phased through said shield and incapacitated him.
The Energy Controller retaliated by disintegrating the Speedster twice (the second time after the Battlesuit crit-charged the Speedster from 10,000 ft. The Paragon got off a few good hits, but didn't do anything terribly impressive.
Lessons learned:
1) As before, Protection (Invincibility) proved to be a tough nut to track, forcing players to fall back on extra effort and hero points to pull of the power stunts needed to neutralize or bypass it.
2) Disintegration is *nasty* -- fail enough rolls and your character becomes a pile of dusty. Since I assume we're going for a brighter, more heroic campaign, I don't think heroes should have this power (or if they have it, rarely use it against living targets). Villains, who'd rather laugh over your unconscious body than scoop up the ashes, should be similarly restrained (though perhaps they'd use it once or twice just to inspire the proper amount of respect for villainy).
3) Gadgets and Mind Control: I think we need to try out a character or three who rely on devices and/or equipment for the majority of their abilities. I also think we need to experiment with mental powers -- we haven't had to make a Will save yet.
Ken
We had a Paragon and Speedster pitted against a Battlesuit and Plasma Energy Controller. By the end of the day, Plasma Boy (Zack's character) had been taken down once because he forgot to raise his defensive energy shield and once because the Speedster phased through said shield and incapacitated him.
The Energy Controller retaliated by disintegrating the Speedster twice (the second time after the Battlesuit crit-charged the Speedster from 10,000 ft. The Paragon got off a few good hits, but didn't do anything terribly impressive.
Lessons learned:
1) As before, Protection (Invincibility) proved to be a tough nut to track, forcing players to fall back on extra effort and hero points to pull of the power stunts needed to neutralize or bypass it.
2) Disintegration is *nasty* -- fail enough rolls and your character becomes a pile of dusty. Since I assume we're going for a brighter, more heroic campaign, I don't think heroes should have this power (or if they have it, rarely use it against living targets). Villains, who'd rather laugh over your unconscious body than scoop up the ashes, should be similarly restrained (though perhaps they'd use it once or twice just to inspire the proper amount of respect for villainy).
3) Gadgets and Mind Control: I think we need to try out a character or three who rely on devices and/or equipment for the majority of their abilities. I also think we need to experiment with mental powers -- we haven't had to make a Will save yet.
Ken