MSH - Thoughts, House Rules, and Best Practices

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Where did all those talents come from? Seems to be very fiddly.
 
Yeah I was using one of the supplemental books. I don't go that hard on Talents anymore. LOL

Edit: it was necessary for the time as our game had to do with a lot of super-science and time-travel and crazy stuff like that.
 
Endless Flight said:
Oh OK, when it comes to supers I tend to lump things together that I might not in a modern military game, for example. Short skill lists and short talent lists.
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This is one reason why I like ICONS' qualities. If my hero has a Super-Soldier quality, I don't have to worrying so much about talents / specialties / skills / etc.
 
Case in point - for a goof, I wrote up Magnum PI. Basic talents.

Magnum P.I.
8219

F EX (20)
A EX(20)
S GD (10)
E EX (20)
R GD(10)
I RM(30)
P EX (20)

Health: 70
Karma: 60
Resources: EX(20)
Popularity: 10

Real Name: Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV
Occupation: Private Detective/Beach Bum
Legal Status: U.S. citizen
Identity: Public
Known Aliases: Magnum
Place of Birth: Detroit, MI
Marital Status: Widowed
Known Relatives: Michele(Deceased wife), Lily Catherine Hue (daughter)
Base of Operations: Oahu HA
Past Group Affiliations: U.S. Navy SEALS, U.S. Naval Intelligence
Present Group Affiliation: None

Background: Born in Detroit, but raised in the Tidewater region of Virginia. In high school, his football team won a Virginia State football championship after which he entered the Navy like his father and grandfather before him.

Magnum attended the United States Naval Academy, He served more than ten-years as an officer in the United States Navy, rising to the rank of Lieutenant before resigning from the service in disillusionment. Magnum was a Vietnam War veteran and a former POW who believed his wife Michelle died in bombing during the final pull-out from Saigon. He served in both the SEALs and Naval Intelligence during his Navy years, and as such maintained many contacts in both "communities."

After leaving the Navy, Magnum became a largely penniless private investigator "beach bum" in Hawaii who, despite irregular employment, managed to secure a cushy job offer about six months after leaving the Navy and live a comfortable existence thanks to celebrity author Robin Masters whom Magnum had never met. The job perks included use of the guest house on his Hawaii estate "Robin's Nest" and use of his red Ferrari 308 GTS in exchange for quality control of the estate security. In the course of the series, Magnum and his friends became involved not only in typical "P.I." cases but also a wide variety of adventures involving espionage, covert operations, paramilitary escapades, and "lifestyles of the rich and famous."

Known Powers
None

Equipment: Colt .45 Range TY, Damage 6, Rate 1, Shots: 8/9, Ferrari 308 GTS (Red), Rolex GMT Master wristwatch,

Skills
Guns, Blunt Weapons, Sharp Weapons, Martial Arts B, C, E, Law Enforcement, Law, Military, Detective/Espionage, Languages: French, Vietnamese, First Aid, Trivia: Sports

Contacts: Police, Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (spoiler aka Robin Masters), Theodore "T.C " Calvin, Orville Wilbur Richard "Rick" Wright
 
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Ashley "Ash" William

Untitled-design14.png


Fighting - Good
Agility - Typical
Strength - Typical
Endurance - Good
Reason - Typical
Intuition - Poor
Psyche - Excellent

Health - 32
Karma - 30

Talents - Woodshop

Equipment - Chainsaw Hand, Boomstick
 
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We need some requests!!!
Endless Flight said:
When deciding on which rank to use, always go with the lower one.
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That's just it. Ash has seen some SHIT... stuff most people would buckle under. And he's dealt swimmingly with the occult. EX Psyche is "Some experience with mental control and/or mystic forces" - I'm going to go out on a limb (no pun intended) and say after all the shit he's been through in Evil Dead 1 and 2... that qualifies. LOLOL
 
Yeah, it's a fair point, Changing it to Excellent. I am still in the Phaserip mindset where "Sanity" is a separate attribute
 
ROBOCOP (RC-2000)
Alex Murphy

RoboCop-Poster-Main-1864x1048.jpg


Fighting - Excellent
Agility - Poor
Strength - Remarkable
Endurance - Incredible
Reason - Good
Intuition - Excellent
Psyche - Amazing

Health - 94
Karma - 0 (earns Karma as per a Robot)

Powers - Biometric Senses (Remarkable), Body Armour (Remarkable), Computer-Aided Targetting (Incredible), Computer Link (Excellent), Cybernetically Enhanced Reflexes (Remarkable), Cybernetically Enhanced Senses (Remarkable)

Limitations - Invasive Programming (Amazing)

Talents - Law Enforcement, Marksman
 
Zorro (as portrayed in The Mask of Zorro)

8222

Fighting: Ex (20)
Agility: Ex (20)
Strength: Gd (10)
Endurance: Ex (20)
Reason: Ty (6)
Intuition: Gd (10)
Psyche: Ex (20)

Health: 70
Karma: 36
Resources: Feeble (2)
Popularity: -10 as Murietta/50 as Zorro

Talents: Sharp Weapons, Weapon Specialist (whip, sword), Martial Arts C, Acrobatics, Tumbling

Contacts: Don Diego de la Vega, Elena Montero

Equipment: smallsword, whip, Tornado (horse).

Real Name: Alejandro Murrieta
Occupation: Vigilante
Legal Status: Citizen of Alta California with criminal record
Identity: Secret
Known Aliases: Don Alejandro del Castillo y García
Place of Birth: Alta California
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Joaquin (brother, deceased)
Base of Operations: Alta California
Past Group Affiliations: Murrieta Brothers
Present Group Affiliation: None
 
The Shadow (as portrayed in The Shadow)
"The weed of crime bears bitter fruit."


8223

Fighting: Rm (30)
Agility: Rm (30)
Strength: Gd (10)
Endurance: Rm (30)
Reason: Ex (20)
Intuition: Rm (30)
Psyche: Am (50)

Health: 100
Karma: 100
Resources: Incredible (40)
Popularity: 10/10

Powers: Mind Control: Rm (30) , Mental Probe: In (40), Telekinesis: Pr (4)

Talents: Guns, Weapon Specialist (pistols), Martial Arts B and E, Business, Criminology, Detective/Espionage, Mesmerism and Hypnosis, Resist Domination

Equipment:.45 pistols (2), agent ring

Contacts: too many to list

Real Name: Lamont Cranston
Occupation: Wealthy Playboy/Vigilante
Legal Status: Citizen of United States with no known criminal record
Identity: Secret
Known Aliases: Yin-Ko (former)
Place of Birth: New York, New York (presumably)
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Wainwright Barth (uncle)
Base of Operations: New York, New York
Past Group Affiliations: None
Present Group Affiliation: None
 
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The Shadow's powers are hard to pin down. I'll keep working on it.

In the meantime, here's one of my favorite scenes from the movie...

 
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The Shadow of the pulps, well...he's got WAY WAY WAY more secret ID's. Even Lamont Cranston was one. Reminds me if Stackpole's other superhero work a book "In Hero Years I'm Dead", definitely inspired by the Shadow's "lots of identities, none are real." motif. Though they did eventually reveal the Shadow's "true" one. Crazy planning though.
 
Silverlion said:
The Shadow of the pulps, well...he's got WAY WAY WAY more secret ID's. Even Lamont Cranston was one. Reminds me if Stackpole's other superhero work a book "In Hero Years I'm Dead", definitely inspired by the Shadow's "lots of identities, none are real." motif. Though they did eventually reveal the Shadow's "true" one. Crazy planning though.
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Yeah Kent Allard was supposedly his real identity, if it was even that. I wanted to stick with the movie version to keep it simple.
 
The Lone Ranger (as portrayed in The Lone Ranger television series and other media)

6DFD580F-A918-46B4-B377-BDC1FB55849A.jpeg

Fighting: Rm (30)
Agility: Ex (20)
Strength: Gd (10)
Endurance: Ex (20)
Reason: Ex (20)
Intuition: Rm (30)
Psyche: Rm (30)

Health: 80
Karma: 80
Resources: Rm (30)
Popularity: 30

Talents: Guns, Weapon Specialist (pistols), Marksman, Martial Arts B, Law, Law Enforcement, Criminology, Detective/Espionage, First Aid, Performer

Equipment: Pistols (2), silver bullets, Silver (horse)

Contacts: Jim Blaine

Real Name: John Reid
Occupation: Vigilante
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no known criminal record
Identity: Secret
Known Aliases: None
Place of Birth: Del Rio, Texas
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Dan Reid Sr. (brother, deceased), Linda Reid (sister-in-law, deceased), Dan Reid Jr, (nephew), Britt Reid (Green Hornet, grand-nephew), Britt Reid (Green Hornet II, grand-nephew)
Base of Operations: American West
Past Group Affiliations: Texas Rangers
Present Group Affiliation: None
 
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Endless Flight said:
The Lone Ranger (as portrayed in The Lone Ranger television series and other media)
...
Known Relatives: Dan Reid Sr. (brother, deceased), Linda Reid (sister-in-law, deceased), Dan Reid Jr, (nephew)
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Don't forget Britt Reid!
 
Remember this thread? Bringing it back to rules questions:

How do you resolve an area effect attack? For example, a guy throws a grenade into an area that does damage to everyone in the area. Does he just need to roll a success and then everyone takes damage? Does he roll to hit each potential target?
 
drkrash said:
Remember this thread? Bringing it back to rules questions:

How do you resolve an area effect attack? For example, a guy throws a grenade into an area that does damage to everyone in the area. Does he just need to roll a success and then everyone takes damage? Does he roll to hit each potential target?
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I'd consider it an attack against all valid targets, rolled separately. If it misses, they 'dove for cover or otherwise got lucky and somehow avoided damage. For thugs and other lesser opponents, I might just lump them together into one roll for expediency.
 
drkrash said:
How do you resolve an area effect attack? For example, a guy throws a grenade into an area that does damage to everyone in the area. Does he just need to roll a success and then everyone takes damage? Does he roll to hit each potential target?
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Most attacks that do area-effects RAW apply the effect with a single roll. It says literally under Grenade that it inflicts its damage (modified by type of grenade) to everyone in the listed area. The *type* of damage is dependent on the type of grenade. So if Fastball tosses a Fragmentation grenade (RM Edged damage) into at your group of PC's, unless they have some ability to get out of the immediate area they are taking the listed damage based on the roll. So if he rolls a Yellow that's a Yellow Edged result for *everyone*.

Permutations
Let me preface this with - "This is my opinion based on reading various rules that give multiple ways to exemplify this*

Area attacks can be achieved without any Stunt or such for Blunt Slugfest, Energy, and Force rolls. The "One-Roll" method is the character can make a single attack against a group of foes as long as they are adjacent to one another at -4CS. They make one roll and the effect is applied to everyone. I treat this narratively as a big wild untrained attack. Like when Ben Grimm pulls up a telephone pole and swipes his whole area of foes. Or when a blaster-type character does an unfocused blast at a crowd of bad guys.

Now... here's where I get into my opinion backed up be precedence within the FASERIP supplemental rules.

Power Stunts - Many MANY NPC's have power-stunts that allow them to do Area-attacks with their powers. This has a ton of narrative precedent. Johnny Storm going Nova being probably the most notable. But even Cyclops developed a "Wide Beam" attack. Many of the NPC's in the Handbook have such stunts in their official writeups. And in most cases these attacks are treated at -1CS to -2CS in effect. Seems pretty reasonable. It also denotes that the character in question, unlike the Multi-Target rule above, has *trained* to do this effect. So this mitigates the -4CS to attack.

Therefore - it's pretty standard for me to let my PC's develop "area-attacks" with their powers (if appropriate). I generally make it -1CS for Force and Energy effect but for particularly potent powers (Psionics, Sonic being particular) I make it -2CS. Primarily because Psionic and Sonic tend to ignore physical Body Armor (though there are other defenses that can mitigate these types).

As a SIDE permutation - *I*do allow my players to independently raise their Stunt's in effective rank to mitigate these penalties for half-cost. This goes for all stunts - which usually levy (but not always) levy a -1CS effect, depends on the Stunt. This allows PC's to become a lot more flexible and powerful, but they still have to pay for it and work at it.

TL/DR - You make one roll. Apply the results effect to everyone in the Area.
 
tenbones said:
But even Cyclops developed a "Wide Beam" attack.
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I've never been a big X-Men reader: does Cyclops squint like Clint Eastwood most of the time to get his tightly focussed beam and then open his eyes like a lunatic when he needs the wide beam?
clockwork-orange-eyes.jpg
"LOOK OUT! GOIN' WIDE!"​
 
I think that's the prototype for the inside of his visor. In the original classic X-men he called it "The Ludovico Blast"
 
tenbones said:
TL/DR - You make one roll. Apply the results effect to everyone in the Area.
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What would provide a character some means to evade an Area of Effect attack in your opinion?
 
Nexus said:
What would provide a character some means to evade an Area of Effect attack in your opinion?
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If the character was actively Dodging (or had not acted yet and changed their action to Dodging), I'd apply the one roll to each target in the area, but modify it for each based on their Dodge Feat result.
 
TristramEvans said:
If the character was actively Dodging (or had not acted yet and changed their action to Dodging), I'd apply the one roll to each target in the area, but modify it for each based on their Dodge Feat result.
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That seems sound. Make that "Do you to change your action?" stage of the round quite useful.
 
As Tristram said - it's already built into the check *assuming* the player is actively dodging - OR makes that nifty "change action" check.
 
It's been awhile...

How do Bursts and Sprayfire work in classic FASERIP?
 
Bursts - can hit up to three targets that are adjacent to one another. You make one roll and apply it to all targets. Some weapons will be denoted as doing higher damage when shooting Bursts (military grade weapons etc.)

Plus you can use different kinds of ammo - and really get dangerous.
 
Last Friday, I started my new MSH campaign. This was using a world I've been using for the past 4-5 years, so this is not a "Marvel" game. This world was previously used with M&M3, Icons Assembled, and Champions 6e.

It went pretty well! Things I learned and/or that surprised me:

1) Combat did not go as swiftly as I hoped, but that's probably just part of a learning curve. We had 4 heroes against 5 villains, and my co-GM was running all the villains.
2) "Encounter balance" is going to be *really* tricky. I chose 5 villains that looked on the weaker side (I'm just re-skinning published characters), but in the end, our heroes took a total of maybe 50 damage. 4 of the villains were KO'd and one escaped. I like to have my heroes win, but I prefer if they work a little more for it.
3) I used the combat house rules I posted previously. Overall, they worked very well.
4) Stunning attacks are huge! One of the heroes has a Remarkable Stunning attack and he took out 3 of the villains with that alone. Each of the targets had Excellent Endurance, which meant the attack had a 95% chance of knocking them out.
5) Adjudicating power effects was easy. The only time I wondered if I was being too lenient was when our Green Lantern expy had 3 different light constructs up at once.
6) Question: For the "Bullseye" combat result, do you have to declare what you hope to do *before* attacking? We didn't require it, which may have been too powerful.
7) I didn't use the official Initiative rules. I rolled each character separately with Intuition bonuses. I intended to then re-roll Init every round, but I realized by round 2 that that was going to be too time-consuming. So I just kept the same order. I'm not crazy about the official rule - at least, the way it reads on paper. I'm considering rolling every round, but just doing it by sides (like the official rule), but that seems like it could make for some one-sided encounters.

I think that's everything. Only one session, but it made us all eager to keep going!
 
drkrash said:
1) Combat did not go as swiftly as I hoped, but that's probably just part of a learning curve. We had 4 heroes against 5 villains, and my co-GM was running all the villains.
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That's a big fight! It'll smooth out once you understand how everything works. Like any system, once you as the GM have it all committed to your memory it goes a lot faster.

drkrash said:
2) "Encounter balance" is going to be *really* tricky. I chose 5 villains that looked on the weaker side (I'm just re-skinning published characters), but in the end, our heroes took a total of maybe 50 damage. 4 of the villains were KO'd and one escaped. I like to have my heroes win, but I prefer if they work a little more for it.
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Honestly? I toss out "balance". Mainly because its never existed in comics. Spiderman has fought villains *fantastically* out of his power-range and won: Juggernaut, Firelord, the *entire* Sinister Six, etc.. Wolverine has fought the Hulk, Wendigo and everyone else at one point. The issue is giving your players environmental options to let them "get creative" in how they're going to beat their opponents. Vice versa too.

drkrash said:
3) I used the combat house rules I posted previously. Overall, they worked very well.
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Awesome!

drkrash said:
4) Stunning attacks are huge! One of the heroes has a Remarkable Stunning attack and he took out 3 of the villains with that alone. Each of the targets had Excellent Endurance, which meant the attack had a 95% chance of knocking them out.
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This is a HUGE lesson to learn. Stunning attacks are *super* powerful. They're a great way to level the playing field. Beyond "stunning" powers - getting actual Stun results from a normal attack is powerful too. Edged Weapons are super dangerous because of this.

drkrash said:
5) Adjudicating power effects was easy. The only time I wondered if I was being too lenient was when our Green Lantern expy had 3 different light constructs up at once.
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Some GM's levy a -1CS tax to each additional construct beyond the first. Food for thought. There's a LOT of different ways to thread that needle. But I always err on what I think is 1) Fun 2) Works as intended for my universe. So go crazy!

drkrash said:
6) Question: For the "Bullseye" combat result, do you have to declare what you hope to do *before* attacking? We didn't require it, which may have been too powerful.
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Bullseyes are supposed to be for called shots against anything 1-foot square or smaller. So when your player says "I wanna shoot Juggernaut in his eye-hole of his helmet." He'll need a Bullseye. Otherwise it's treated as a normal hit. I encourage players to do called shots. Makes them burn Karma. heh.

drkrash said:
7) I didn't use the official Initiative rules. I rolled each character separately with Intuition bonuses. I intended to then re-roll Init every round, but I realized by round 2 that that was going to be too time-consuming. So I just kept the same order. I'm not crazy about the official rule - at least, the way it reads on paper. I'm considering rolling every round, but just doing it by sides (like the official rule), but that seems like it could make for some one-sided encounters.
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No one likes the RAW initiative rules for this exact reason. What I do is this: I do group initative, but I allow players to do this *only* if they're an actual super-team with a Team Karma Pool. I let them use whomever has the higher Initiative bonus, then they get to choose among them the order.

I also use different bonuses. I have them add up their Intuition and Agility. Divide that by ten, (round down). That's the number. I got tired of hearing people complaining their super agile character should be able to react quickly (which I barely agree with).

I roll my bad-guys as a group too. Same system. The point of rolling every round is to keep the ebb-and-flow of combat moving because forcing people to Evade a lot gives tempo to the tide of battle. It gives forward momentum to those that are able to go first. But do it the way you like it!

drkrash said:
I think that's everything. Only one session, but it made us all eager to keep going!
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Looking forward to hearing more!
 
IMHO, if you need more than two talents (unless their "special" talents which alter normal talent rules of +CS) you probably should just up the attribute instead. (Fighting skill is one where the talents each do different things for example.)
 
Some links a few here might find useful

http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/
http://gamingnerdsrus.co/forum/index.php
http://www.angelfire.com/comics/benriely/index.html
http://jackolanternsmshblog.blogspot.com/
http://mshgamer.com/
https://www.technohol.com/
http://web.archive.org/…/www.telebyte.…/~vlemming/index.html
https://www.mediafire.com/?tu2wou0aqbq4v
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/xmanalb/MRPG.html
http://faserip.wikia.com/wiki/FASERIP_Wiki
http://webspace.webring.com/people/wj/jemidex/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Marvel_RPG_supplements
http://gamingnerdsrus.co/forum/index.php…
http://darkonnia.com/download/marvel/
http://ozbot.typepad.com/marvelflipside/marvel-rpg/
http://dorkland.blogspot.com/…/player-defined-powers-in-cla…
http://www.webring.org/l/rd…
http://playsuperhero.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/TSR-Marvel-Super-Heroes-RPG/112505282167304
http://www.angelfire.com/ns/weird/rpg.html
http://reocities.com/Area51/vault/7732/
http://forum.rpg.net/tags.php?tag=marvel+super+heroes+rpg
http://home.hiwaay.net/~lksei…/…/Rom/othermedia/mshrpg.shtml
https://groups.yahoo.com/…/MarvelSuperHeroesClassicRPG/files
http://www.oocities.org/timessquare/alley/1674/MAIN.html
http://truesilver.11net.com/marvel.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/ca/stormangel/watchmen.html
http://www.webring.org/l/rd…
http://ozbot.typepad.com/marvelflipside/
http://www.angelfire.com/planet/heroicus/index.html
http://havoc102.tripod.com/
http://livingfree.wikidot.com/4c-system
http://www.gratisgames.webspace.virginmedia.com/faserip.html
https://www.youtube.com/playlist…
http://sourceforge.net/projects/javamcc/
https://plus.google.com/communities/101870117522297504842
https://app.roll20.net/…/script-marvel-super-heroes-rpg-u…/…
http://rpgpodcasts.com/podcas…/…/MarvelSuperheroesNickofTime
http://roguesandreavers.blogspot.com/…/campaign-frames-for-…
http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/…/marvel-superheroes-rpg-ne…
https://www.dropbox.com/…/k1in34…/AAD9MHYZkInZvNxqK52OJYcza…
https://www.mediafire.com/?tu2wou0aqbq4v
http://www.trdlcomics.com/…/trdl-illustrati…/trdl-mythology/
http://www.ruleofthedice.com/…/how-to-make-super-heroes-tha…
https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Marvel_Super_Heroes_%28role-play…
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/marvelclassic/characters.html
https://sourceforge.net/projects/javamcc/
https://issuu.com/mfranc…/…/7c3d741779e44b4889c395f5239cbfab
http://home.hiwaay.net/~lksei…/…/Rom/othermedia/mshrpg.shtml
http://www.4shared.com/folder/uGhdu7M0/MSHRPG.html…
http://marvel-super-heroes-profiles.wikia.com/…/Marvel_Supe…
http://kolidascope.wikia.com/…/h…//www.norse-man.net/Marvel/
https://archive.org/details/RFIMarvelActualPlay
 
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