Wings Over the Pyre

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: Massive Attack - Heat Miser (Squid's Redoubt)

I've just finished reading chadu's Truth & Justice RPG, the latest thing from Atomic Sock Monkey Press (a company so well-named that you probably ought to buy their products on that virtue alone). Like so many designs these days, its a superheroes RPG, eschewing the painful crunch of mechanics like Hero and even BESM 2nd Ed for the smooth free-flowing nature of the PDQ System as used in Dead Inside and Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: the Roleplaying Game.

I don't want to go on at vast length about this; there are scads of reviews out there if you want to read them, and they're all pretty unrelentingly good. As should this be read to be, actually. T&J captures the important bits of the superhero experience in directly simple ways, using Fudge / Over the Edge-like traits/descriptors as the core of the system and with a significant amount of work invested into Spin-Off Stunts (things supers can do with their powers which are implicit) and Signature Stunts (things supers can do which are markedly descriptive of themselves and suitably powerful). By focusing the mechanics on the staged-level trait-like core, for both damage and targets for rolls, simplicity is captured without having to resort to the crazed level of detail we're used to seeing in superhero games.

The core of the PDQ System is effectively like the core of Fudge: A ladder of increasing trait values, Poor [-2], Average [0], Good [+2], Expert [+4], and Master [+6]. The core randomizer is 2d6, for that bell-curve feeling, and generally traits act as direct modifiers to the roll. When you need a solid target number (and even things which don't exist as explicit rolls do on occasion, like determining areas of effect, etc) simply use 7 as a base and adjust by the modifier.

Interestingly, my brain effectively filled in the Fudge conversion as I was reading along. Replace Fudge Mediocre with Poor and drop anything lower. For combat rolls, roll 5dF and add a step between each rung, ie. Poor, Poor+, Fair, Fair+, Good, Good+, Great, Great+, Superb. The difference in results gives you the number of Damage or Failure Ranks. The rest runs entirely without significant modification.

I note this only because I've become so used to the Fudge nomenclature. The leverage into 5dF is an interesting shift, but its effectively the same as 2d6, with a range of 10 steps.

Chargen is a breeze, and probably should set the bar for such things in the future. With so much being allowed in the penumbra of a given Power, there's far less focus on trying to wrangle the system into getting just the right thing and more relaxation of allowing the Spin-Off Stunt system to just work. Bought Master [+6]Ice Blast and want to use it to freeze the bad guys' hands together in ice manacles? Spin-Off Stunt it at Good [+2] (ie. two ranks less than the source power) and you get it, and you even get the instant knowledge of what he'll have to roll to get loose (9 or better). Chargen even covers the likes of Batman and other super-normals with the ability to convert ranks of Powers into Qualities (skills, in other systems) at a good rate. Batman can pretty handily have Master [+6] Detective and Gadgeteering without breaking a sweat.

Combining chargen with the way the system handles two kinds of "damage" really balances the scales for the super-normals. Pretty much any trait can be used for inflicting "damage," and both social and mental Failure Ranks are as impairing as actual physical Damage Ranks. Both have to be allocated away from the Qualities and Powers of the defending character, and if any trait drops below Poor, the character is "out of the action." Explicitly targeting a character's vulnerabilities and weak spots gives more ranks of damage, taking them down that much faster. (Interestingly, in a nod to Nobilis, attacking a PC's Vulnerability can give the character Hero Points.)

T&J includes several different super settings at the back of the book and short story arcs for all of them. Surprisingly, they're all pretty solid, though my favourite is the near-future SuperCorps and my least, by a long margin, is Fanfare for the Amplified Man.

As ever with a new RPG, I have to engage in edge-pushing chargen, and this time, its a character concept I really haven't been able to do in any other system except Nobilis before now. Observe the terrible and terrifying ... Dreadlord!

• Name
  
  Dreadlord / Jon Falkon
  
• Background
  
  Born to a solidly middle-class family on the easy shores of South Caroline, Jon Falkon was raised like most of his friends, in a loving, stable, Christian home. Of course, Jon himself never managed to sustain much of a belief – in anything, really. Throughout his youth he dabbled in all the traditional angst-driven teen rebelion religion tinkering, from free-love paganism to strict Catholicism, all to the rather confused indulgence of his parents.
  
  Majoring in philosophy in college, his vague urges to believe in something, anything, turned into ever greater frustration at the surety others sported at their ill-conceived and poorly thought-out belief systems. Ultimately, it was his frustration that led to the breakthrough which he'd been looking for his whole life.</p>

  These days, Jon uses his talents for hire, turning a dollar to fund his ongoing reaches into the furthest expanse of human experience. When not actually “on call,” he likes to read trashy romance novels, blog on philosophical issues, and paint. He's opened a few small exhibitions, but the appeal of his rather dire artistic style is limited.

• Motivation
  
  Push himself and others to the breaking point -- and beyond.

• Qualities
  
  Expert [+4] Philosophy, Good [+2] Leadership, Good [+2] Back-Door Escapes, Good [+2] Occultism, Poor [-2] Sadistic

• Origin
  
  Jon continued delving ever deeper into more ecclectic and obscure reaches of philosophy and religious practice, fully willing to experiment on his most readily accessible subject: himself. Psychoactives in the Amazon? Certainly. Needle-hanging in the Sierra Madres? Absolutely. Engaging in the cannibalistic practices of the outcast castes along the Ganges? Without hesitation. Despite his relentless pursuit, Jon never felt that he made contact with the occult world, nor touched something truly beyond humanity.
  
  Until the puzzle-box.
  
  An anonymous gift from a street urchin in Cairo, Jon examined the mahogany, ebony, and brass construct in minute detail. Something about it gave him a feeling of comfort, even as it pushed others away in disgust and horror. When he began working the process of solving the puzzle it presented, he retreated from the world for a month, barely acknowledging a need to eat or drink, and certainly nothing beyond that.
  
  On the night he solved it, Jon was in a near ecstatic state, pouring his rage and frustration through his fingertips and into the box as if it were a reliquary of pain. Apparently, it was. When the cube broke apart, sliding part over part of its own volition, Jon faced entities that only the supernatural could explain, demons in flesh and bone and steel.
  
  The exact terms of the agreement and, indeed, the rest of the week are still hazy in Jon's mind, but he recalls blazingly that, ultimately, he and the demons were in utter agreement on one point: the world of the flesh is to be experienced, no matter what. Once experienced, flesh is understood, and what is known can be controlled.
  
  Coming to himself after, he awoke in the squalor of his apartment, the box closed and dead in his fist. And around him stood more cold, dead things -- the dead who served him.

• Powers
  
  Good [+2] Minions (9 Lieutenants, vast army of the dead; Limitation: Only dead people or animals), Good [+2] Super-Sidekick (Undead creation of the week), Good [+2] Invulnerability

• Stunts
  
  Typical UCotWs:
  
  Deadly Hellhound (Qualities: Master [+6] Fighting, Good [+2] Sprint; Powers: Good [+2] Breathe Fire)
  
  Insect Swarm (Qualities: Good [+2] Stealth, Good [+2] Swarm Bite, Good [+2] Carry Things, Good [+2] Terrify; Powers: Good [+2] Invulnerability)
  
  Jaselle Voorhee (Qualities: Expert [+4] Stalk Prey, Expert [+4] Incite Fear; Powers: Average [0] Invulnerability, Average [0] Super-Strength)

• Hero Point Pool
  
  5/10

• Codename
  
  Dreadlord

• Uniform
  
  None, of note. Dreadlord could literally be anyone, at any time. Jon does tend to acessorize with subtle symbols of the dark side of the occult or death, but never blatantly.

• Miscellany
  
  Dreadlord's Invulnerability is actually an outgrowth of his command of the dead. When any given attack is immanent, there are inevitably animate corpses in the way to absorb all or part of the blow.
  
  Dreadlord is not, necessarily, pure villain material. Running him as an outsider hero is certainly possible.

The key difference in this character is that he uses a medium other than his own body to pursue his ends; in this instance, the ability to control and mold dead things to his will. How many other systems let you have a veritable army of unpowered minions at your command?