Converting Godlike to Mutants & Masterminds 3E

[Baeraad]

Okay, so. I feel like running a World War Two game of low-powered superheroes. And I'm pretty impressed with the way that Godlike includes supers in the historical timeline and makes them feel like they fit in seamlessly. But words can not describe how much I don't want to have to learn a new system - whereas I have also been wanting to run M&M for a while. So... conversion time.

Let's start by seeing if we can convert the powers of the "first ten" and then go from there. I'll set the Power Level at 6; Talents can do things that are impossible to others, but they are supposed to be specialised tools rather than all-around superhumans, with powers that tend to come with a lot of caveats and limitations, and which usually does not make them unbeatable by regular people, at least not in sufficient numbers.

First off, we have Der Flieger, a Nazi superman who can fly through the sheer power of his overwhelming smugness. According to his writeup, he can fly at "speeds exceeding 800 MPH," is unbothered by the lack of air and heat at high altitudes, and, by flying at top speed, can generate sonic booms that were known to knock spitfires out of the air.

Okay. 800 miles per hour is something like 2,000 meters per round, so rounding that up Der Flieger has Flight 9, for 18 PP. He also has Immunity 1: Cold and Immunity 2: Suffocation, both with the Flaw of Limited: Only from high altitudes. Finally, we'll call his sonic booms a Damage 6 effect with the Extra of Area: Burst and the Flaw of Limited: Only when moving at top speed. He also has Enhanced Trait: Move-By Attack, with the Flaw of Limited: Sonic booms only. Both Immunity 1 and Enhanced Trait: Move-By Attack just costs 1 PP each and have a Flaw that reduces costs by 1 PP/level, which I don't know how it's meant to work, but we can reasonably say that they cost 1 PP between the two of them because of it. That puts the sum up to 17 PP.

Der Flieger's main defensive ability seems to have been that he kept moving too fast for the weapons of the day to be able to get a bead on him (he was eventually brought down by a sort of airborn proximity mine). So let's also give him Enhanced Trait: Dodge 8.

All in all, Der Flieger's power has a cost of 34 PP, which seems pretty reasonable. He's also got a very character-appropriate, obnoxious fighting style which amounts to VROOM-ing past and knocking everyone over, ending up on a safe distance from them before doing the same thing over again. The best counter is to Ready a close combat attack with the trigger of "Der Flieger comes within range," so that the next time he comes rushing by you punch him in his big, dumb, Aryan face and knock him on his big, dumb, Aryan ass. This fits the setting information, since canonically Cien managed to do pretty much exactly that at one point.

On the side of the angels, we have Pevnost, who's got the relatively straightforward power of making any doorway lead to any other doorway he's ever passed through. This is stated to exhaust him; he single-handedly evacuated 5,000 people from Dunkirk, but the effort put him in the hospital. He's got a listed maximal range of "2.5 nautical miles." Let's give him Teleport 12, with the Extended Extra and the Limited To Extended Flaw. He also has the Portal Extra and the Medium: Doorways I've passed through and Tiring Flaws. Sum total, 24 PP.

Cien is a tricky one. He can make telekinetically manipulate things touched by his shadow, with a strength proportional to how long his shadow is at the time. His writeup helpfully notes that he once throw a 43-ton Panzer 45 meters, which gives us some numbers to plug into the M&M system. 43 tons is Mass 11, 45 meters is 150 feet is Distance 3, meaning that Cien needed Strength 14 to pull off that feat. Let's say he both used Extra Effort and concentration, so we can stay within the Power Level limit, meaning he has Move Object 12 with the Damaging Extra and the Flaw of Limited: Only objects touched by my shadow. I won't even try to figure out a system for determining how long Cien's shadow is at any given time, but at least this means the GM can mess with Cien by having Germans aim searchlights at him (or conversely, have him be attacked in the middle of the night and no light sources handy). The difficulty of "aiming" his shadow is probably covered with the fact that he's got a +0 attack bonus on grabbing and crushing things with his shadow, since anything else would put him above the Power Limit. Sum total, 24 PP.

Viljo, who seems to be inspired by real-life Finnish badass Simo Häyhä, is immune to cold, can disappear into the snow with preternatural swiftness and "was once seen to dodge machine gun bullets after they had been fired." So he has Concealment 4: All Visual Senses, with the Flaw of Limited: Only in snow, Immunity 1: Cold and Enhanced Trait: Dodge 8. That's pretty cheap, so let's throw in Enhanced Trait: Parry 8 as well while we're at it, making Viljo able to duck Russian bayonettes along with the bullets. 21 PP for the terror the frozen north!

From the rolling hills of Denmark, Vogel is immune to missiles that he can see coming. That's nice and simple. He's got Immunity 20: Missiles and the Flaw of Limited: Only intentional attacks that I can see coming. 10 PP.

Aesgir is a challenge, since, well, he's basically The Mighty Thor in what's supposed to be a low-powered setting. He's got a spear that once pierced a full decimeter of tank steel in a single thrust... and is mildly target-seeking... and that makes him "nearly invulnerable to kinetic damage" while holding it... and that (possibly) warns him of danger. Oh, and he can open a portal to a parallel dimension, which is admittedly a big frozen wasteland that's good for a quick escape route but not much else. Ye gods... so to speak. How did this guy not win the war on his own?!

Okay, okay. A tank has Toughness 12, and I'll assume it has Impervious, being an inanimate object and all. Let's give Aesgir Damage 6 and Penetrating, meaning that he's got at least a decent shot of punching through. The attack also has Increased Range and Homing. Further, we'll give him Protection 8, with the Impervious Extra. He's got Senses 1: Danger Sense and Senses 4: Precognition, the latter with the Uncontrolled Flaw. Finally, he's got Movement 1: Dimensional Travel with the Flaw of Limited: Valhalla only and the Increased Mass Extra. Enough to move "eighty fully-armed commandos," apparently... Let's say 300 pounds per commando for a total of 24,000 pounds of weight moved? So 9 ranks of Increased Mass, then. All of this has the Removable Flaw, so it's at 60% cost.

Hoo boy, let's add this up...

Damage 6 (Penetrating, Increased Range, Homing 1) - 19 PP
Protection 8 (Impervious) - 16 PP
Senses 1: Danger Sense - 1 PP
Senses 4: Precognition (Uncontrolled) - 4 PP
Movement 1: Dimension Travel (Limited: Valhalla only, Increased Mass 9) - 10 PP

A whoppin' 50 PP total, but add the Removable Flaw and we end up with... 30 PP. Huh. That's actually reasonable, and he seems at least somewhat capable of doing the things he's canonically supposed to have done. Okay, maybe he's not such an insane character after all.

I'll stop there for now and do the other four later. Any advice from M&M veterans and/or Godlike aficionados would be welcome.

 

[PolarBlues]

I don't want to spoil your fun, but my approach to converting would be to grab a M&M villain collection, cross out the name of M&M villain (or hero) and replace it with the name for Godlike. That's basically how I "converted" Necessary Evil to ICONS.

I'll hand in my Roleplayers membership card now.

 

[Baeraad]

I don't want to spoil your fun, but my approach to converting would be to grab a M&M villain collection, cross out the name of M&M villain (or hero) and replace it with the name for Godlike. That's basically how I "converted" Necessary Evil to ICONS.

I'll hand in my Roleplayers membership card now.

While I haven't read those villain collections in detail (I think I have a few lying around somewhere...), aren't they rather too powerful for the level Godlike works on?

 

[PolarBlues]

I wouldn't understimate the power levels of Godlike. The style and presentation of Godlike might lean towards more realism (if that is the right word here) , but my character in Godlike (a pregen) could create duplicates of himself and some of the guys we fought were pretty nasty.

 

[Baeraad]

I wouldn't understimate the power levels of Godlike. The style and presentation of Godlike might lean towards more realism (if that is the right word here) , but my character in Godlike (a pregen) could create duplicates of himself and some of the guys we fought were pretty nasty.

Yeah, but you see what I'm ending up with when I represent characters from the book, and these are supposed to be the mightiest Talents in the world. Sure, I'm taking it from the fluff text and ignoring the crunch as much as possible, but still. And anyway, creating duplicates would be what, a Summon effect with the Multiple Minions Extra? Say you wanted them to be just like you but without the power, and you were Power Level 6. That's Summon 4 with Multiple Minions 3 for a total of 32 PP (I think; the way the point costs are phrased is confusing me a little). Now you can make 8 clones of yourself, each of whom has more than enough points to replicate your mundane attributes. That's pretty cool, but a regular PL 10 M&M character could have that power and two or three other ones that were just as cool.

 

[Voros]

For low power supers in WWII I highly recommend this novel by the Israeli sf writer Lavie Tidhar, I think he's one of the best sf writers working today. This is an early more pulpy novel but it fits the supers style well.

 

[Baeraad]

All right, on we go. Zindel is the trickiest one yet, since he's got a save-or-die effect - which isn't actually a thing that exists in M&M (and rightly so, I would even say). Honestly, the simplest way to do it is probably to just call it a Damage effect and add a setting rule whereby "Incapacitated" means "dead," unless you spend a Hero Point to escape that fate. That means that Zindel can go around transforming random fascist mooks to pillars of salt pretty easily, but he'd need to soften up a serious enemy some before the power "took" on them. That's not perfect, but it might have to do. Again, it's not like I actually want a power that amounts to "bang, you're dead" even on major characters. That's just no fun at all.

That still leaves the problem that Zindel's power works anywhere within his line of sight and he doesn't even necessarily have to be aware of an enemy for it to kick in. Hoo boy... okay, call it Senses 1: Danger Sense with the Limitation: Can only use my power in the surprise round. The power itself is Damage 6, with Increased Range: Perception, Tiring and Limited: Humans only, and which is Linked to Transform: Enemies killed by my power, and their possessions, into salt. The last part is more of a special effect than anything else, so I think 1 PP is enough for it. Let's add Enhanced Trait: Perception 8 with the Flaw of Limited: Only for using Danger Sense, to really represent the fact that people trying to ambush Zindel are at severe risk of being turned to salt before he is even consciously aware that they're there. That brings us up to 12 PP. I don't know, this is the first conversion I'm not really pleased with. Then again, "everyone who tries to attack me automatically dies" is such a broken power in the first place that M&M is frankly all the better for not having rules to represent it.

Let's move on to Daegal, the champion of tulips and windmills. His power is a lot more reasonable, but it is also a little complicated:

[Daegal] could control the intensity of light with the power of his mind. He could cause blinding flashes or absolute darkness within a large radius about the size of a city block. He was immune to his own ability, and could see through his power’s effects without difficulty. In addition, he could affect multiple targets simultaneously at great ranges, and could cause lasting effects that would persist even in his absence.

Blinding flashes are easy enough. Affliction 6 (impaired, disabled, unaware; resisted with Fortitude), Area: Perception, Limited: Sight only, Cumulative. 12 PP. The darkness seems to be Concealment 2: Normal sight with Attack, Affects Others, Area: Burst with 3 extra ranks extending it to 90 meters in radius for 14 PP. We can add Increased Duration to the darkness for it to stick for as long as Daegal wants. I assume he can also make an area light, so let's also give him Environment 3: Light with Increased Duration for 6 PP. He's also got Senses 4: Penetrates Concealment with the Flaw of Limited: Only my own darkness. That's 36 PP, which is on the high side but acceptable.



ETA: By the way, does anyone know what I'm supposed to do with Flaws that reduce the cost-per-rank of a power below 1? That seems to happen pretty often.

ETA2: And while we're at the subject, how do regular weapons factor into the whole "attack bonus + damage can not exceed 2 x PL" thing? What happens if you get your hands on a weapon that does enough damage that it pushes you over the limit? Does it not count because it's not inherent to you? Or do you get an automatic penalty that brings your attack bonus down within the limit?

 

[Baeraad]

L'Invocateur is pretty simple to define in terms of powers, but I don't quite know what to do with his mundane abilities. See, his power is that he can turn invisible as long as his eyes are closed. That's easy - just Concealment 2: All visible senses with Limitation: Only when my eyes are closed. The problem is that he's also supposed to have learned to function more or less normally without needing to see, and M&M does not seem to have any sort of blind-fighting advantage to represent that.

I guess Senses 2: Accurate (hearing) might do the trick? He can pin-point the location of anything that makes noise, and therefore it's not concealed from him just because he can't see it? Add Senses 1: Direction Sense and Senses 1: Distance Sense. All of which are Innate (and so can't be nullified by Talents who otherwise can nullify powers) and has the Training descriptor rather than the Parahuman descriptor, meaning it doesn't reveal the user as a parahuman when used. Add 7 PP for the special training, for a total of 9 PP.

Finally Vevel, who is a berserker who gains superhuman strength and speed when threatened, but then can't remember what he did after the effects wear off again. We'll call that Limitation: Only when in a combat fugue. Let's use that to buy a bunch of Enhanced Trait since Vevel doesn't seem to be the most subtle of parahumans. We'll take Enhanced Trait: Fighting 4, Enhanced Trait: Agility 4, Enhanced Trait: Strength 4 and Enhanced Trait: Constitution 4. 16 PP total, and as much of a straightforward fighting machine as our chosen limitation allows.

 

[Baeraad]

Right, from all of this I think I would add the following restrictions:

• The Power Level for the game is 6. Most Talents have Powers that can be purchased by 30 PP or less. Piling on Flaws to make them more affordable is encouraged, especially weird and arbitrary Limitation Flaws.
• Abilities can not be raised higher than 6 other than through the Enhanced Trait Power.
• Parry and Dodge can only be raised through Enhanced Trait, just like Toughness.
• Any effect that would turn you Incapacitated instead kills you outright. However, if you have any Hero Points, you can spend one to become Incapacitated instead of dying.
• Any Talent automatically recognises another Talent who is currently using his Powers, even if those Powers don't have a visible effect. It is not otherwise possible to identify Talents on sight.
• Where Skills and Advantages aren't up to the task of representing your character, you are allowed to build very low-key Powers that aren't parahuman in origin but represent special training or aptitude. Those Powers always have the Innate Extra and can't be identified by Talents.
• The Variable Power does not exist. The Alternate Effect Extra might, but it'll need to be very justified - Talents are normally one-trick ponies who can do one or two very specific things.
• The Mind Reading Power does not exist.
• The Movement: Time Travel Power does not exist.
• The Artificier and Ritualist Advantages exist but are extremely uncommon in the West. They can only be taken through the Enhanced Trait Power; "magic" is actually an expression of parahuman Talent and doesn't work for ordinary people.
• The Inventor Advantage can likewise only be taken through the Enhanced Trait Power but otherwise functions as normal.
• The Equipment Advantage can be ignored. You're in the army, you'll be supplied with what the brass thinks you need.
• Characters of all races and sexes are allowed, and prejudice will not normally feature into the game. It's wartime, every Talent is a war asset, most people are inclined to be very open-minded if it gets them an edge in the parahuman arms race. If you do want to deal with racism or sexism, choose an appropriate Complication.