House Rules

A Mutants and Masterminds Noir campaign run by devlin1
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devlin1
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House Rules

Post by devlin1 »

There are some house rules I believe I'll want to incorporate to help enforce the mood and genre of our game (and also to gimp your characters so severely as to make them unplayable). I'll use this thread to list them as they occur to me. First up: Power Checks.

Power Checks:
Your powers aren't completely reliable; if they were, you'd be a hero, or at least not a civilian. Activating a power requires a Power Check (character's Power Level + d20) vs. a DC equal to 10 + Power Rank. You can Take 10 on this check as a full-round action (for powers requiring a standard action to activate), but you cannot Take 20. You may spend a Hero Point to automatically succeed on a Power Check (before or after the roll is made).

Failure means one of two things; the choice is up to you. Either the power doesn't take effect, in which case there are no other consequences, or it does take effect, but with the following complications. Failure by 5 or less means you are Fatigued (-2 Str and Dex, -1 Att and Def); failure by more than 5 means you are Exhausted (-6 Str and Dex, -3 Att and Def). Out of combat, either of these conditions goes away quickly. In combat, they can be alleviated by limiting yourself to a standard action for 2 rounds if Fatigued or for 6 if Exhausted (if Exhausted, after 4 rounds of "recovery" your condition improves to Fatigued). Failing a Power Check by any amount when already Fatigued automatically results in Exhaustion; failing when Exhausted requires a Fort save with a DC of 10 + Power Rank. Failing that means Unconsciousness.

Note that because you can Take 10, and because the number of ranks in a power is capped by your Power Level, any power will succeed if you're willing to take a full round to activate it. It's only when you're in a combat situation or similarly under pressure that there's a chance of failure. Thus, out of combat, Mental Quickness doesn't take 6 seconds to activate, but in combat, it's more difficult to focus.
Mike Olson
‎"In this economy, it's not easy to feed a growing family. So we eat Haunkkah gelt for dinner and look at a picture of broccoli." --Paul F. Tompkins
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devlin1
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Post by devlin1 »

The Mickey Rule:
This one's already come up, but I'll post it here for the sake of completeness.

Ingested poisons are 100 percent effective -- if ingested. What matters isn't how strong the poison is, but how noticeable. The only way to avoid being affected by an ingested poison is to detect it (using the Notice skill). If unnoticed, it works.
Mike Olson
‎"In this economy, it's not easy to feed a growing family. So we eat Haunkkah gelt for dinner and look at a picture of broccoli." --Paul F. Tompkins
Spirit of the Blank: A blog.
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devlin1
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Post by devlin1 »

Players Make All Rolls:
Well, nearly all rolls, anyway.

Under this variant, instead of the GM rolling to see if an NPC is able to hit a PC in a fight, the player makes a defense roll (d20 + Def) which must meet or exceed the NPC's Attack + 11. Thus, if a thug with an Attack Bonus of +4 took a swing at Willoughby (say, because he didn't like his name), instead of me rolling a d20, Albert would roll a d20 and add his Defense Bonus of (for example) +5. If his total is 15 or more, the thug misses; if less than 15, he hits.

Why do this? It makes your Hero Points more useful, since more of the die rolls are in your hands. Because you have additional opportunities to manipulate die rolls, you have a slightly greater say in the outcome of combat.

Things like secret rolls (e.g., Notice) and opposed rolls (e.g., an NPC's Notice vs. your Move Silently) will still be rolled by the GM.
Mike Olson
‎"In this economy, it's not easy to feed a growing family. So we eat Haunkkah gelt for dinner and look at a picture of broccoli." --Paul F. Tompkins
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devlin1
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Post by devlin1 »

Card-Based Hero Points:
This is easily the wackiest house rule I've ever come up with. It will probably require some tweaking. Also, it may look complex, but I think it'll add a fun dimension to the game.

For every Hero Point received, the player draws a card from a standard deck of playing cards (sans Jokers). Individual cards can be used (and consequently discarded) as Hero Points, as described in the M&M rulebook (except for the one where you get to edit the scene). No more than five cards can be collected in this way; that is, no character may have more than five Hero Points at any given time. If you have five cards and receive another Hero Point, you may discard any card in hand and draw another (the relevance of this will soon become apparent).

If you have five cards in hand, you gain a special ability depending on the quality of the hand you hold, as described below. If you qualify for multiple effects with one hand (e.g., a Pair and Three of a Kind), only one may benefit you per round. These effects only apply if you hold five cards.

No matter what five cards you hold, you may discard all of them to edit a scene (as Full House, below).

High Card: Once per scene, instead of rolling for an opposed check, you can instead force the GM to draw a card. If your high card beats the drawn card, you win the check, whatever it is. If used for a damage save, the difference in the cards' values is the margin of success (all face cards = 10 in this context). Ties go to the GM. If the GM wins, discard your high card.

Pair: Once per scene, roll two dice instead of one and use the better result of the two. Discard your Pair to "roll" a (non-natural) 20 instead or to roll two Recoveries in place of one (and gain the benefits of each).

Three of a Kind: Pick three skills. As long as you have Three of a Kind, you have +4 to each of these skills. As soon as you fail any skill roll, discard your Three of a Kind.

Straight: After collecting your Straight, add a +1 bonus to your next die roll. If that roll succeeds, add a +2 to the next; if that succeeds, add a +3 to the next, and so on up to +5. If any of these rolls fails, your next roll has no additional bonus, but if *that* roll succeeds, start the bonus cycle over again. Once your bonus reaches +5, discard three cards. Discard your hand to receive a bonus to one roll equal to the high card of your straight.

Flush (all cards of one suit): All non-combat skills based on one attribute receive a +4 as long as you hold a Flush. The attribute so affected is determined by the suit you hold. Hearts: Str or Con, Diamonds: Dex, Spades: Cha, Clubs: Int or Wis. If you fail any skill roll, discard three cards.

Full House (Pair and Three of a Kind): Edit a scene (within reason), then discard three cards. Possibilities include discovering that you aren't handcuffed after all, finding a vital clue, having your opponent suddenly run out of bullets, and so on. You may also replicate, for one scene, the effects of High Card, Pair, Three of a Kind, Straight, or Flush. At the end of that scene, discard three cards.

Four of a Kind: As long as you hold Four of a Kind, gain a bonus to all of your saves according to the four cards in your set: +2 for number cards, +3 for face cards, +4 for Aces. If you fail a save, discard three cards.

Straight Flush (Straight of one suit): As Straight, with the following exceptions: Instead of starting with a +1 bonus, start with a bonus equal to your lowest card and work your way up to a bonus equal to your highest card. Immediately discard three cards after reaching the high point of the bonus cycle. At any time, discard three cards to receive a bonus to a single roll equal to twice the value of the high card of your Straight Flush.

Royal Flush (Flush with all face cards): As long as you hold a Royal Flush, all of your die rolls (skills, combat checks, and saves) receive a +2 bonus. Discard three cards to give yourself or an ally a +10 bonus to all rolls for one round or to edit a scene (as in Full House, above).
Mike Olson
‎"In this economy, it's not easy to feed a growing family. So we eat Haunkkah gelt for dinner and look at a picture of broccoli." --Paul F. Tompkins
Spirit of the Blank: A blog.
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jimmy corrigan
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

innovative. i like it.
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SpaceMonkey
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Post by SpaceMonkey »

Well, I do always have a deck of cards in my gaming bag, so there will be a backup just in case.

System sounds interesting, we'll see how it goes.
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