The question about lesser used power sets was amusing for me, as I was trying to do a SCRPG character sheet for a webcomic character last night, and the big thing with the character is an unusual body type. We don’t see many heroes that stretch the definition of “humanoid.”
One of the PCs in a game I play in on-and-off is an owl. A magic spirit owl, but still an owl, and not a shapeshifter or anything like that. Aside from taking Awareness for exotic senses and Flight her being not-human(oid) isn’t really mechanically represented.
The jokes about Operative “owning” the arrows she was pin-cushioned with reminds me of an old D&D campaign where the GM ran “Immunity To Normal Missiles” spells that way. All the non-magical missile weapons would still stick in you normally, but they didn’t do any damage - unless the spell ended or got dispelled before you pulled them all out. At that point the damage all came in at once, often with fatal results. Remember us winning a missile exchange against a bunch of orcs because the ranger in our group was yanking their own arrows out of the wizard and firing their own arrows back at them after running out of his own. He was also using the spellcaster as cover.
It was a strange session, but amusing. We nicknamed the wizard PC “Quiver” after that.
Well, this characters six arms (Yes, talking about Spinnerette… honestly, she’s probably fit right in with Sentinels, especially after the “Editor” arc) are easy, just strength and ability selection. The webbing was trickier, but I just made it a signature weapon, because what else could it be.
That’s a very funny interpretation - makes me think of Exalted 2nd Ed, where both the ‘good guy’ and ‘bad guy’ exalted had abilities to make them invulnerable; the Solar version made attacks bounce off, and the Abyssal version made them just sink into you without hurting you.
Personally, I’d be inclined to do web-slinging as either Swinging or a weird form of Signature Vehicle, solely for what Red zone abilities that would open up to choose from. The Mobility chart is pure gold, and Sig W’s only specific unlock is Charged-Up Blast, which is great and all but doesn’t seem as “webby” as the other three Hallmark Reds - even Sacrificial Ram could be Spinny expending all her webbing to grab three villains at once and ping-pong them off each other and the environment or something. Quick Exit’s pretty much the Marvel Spider-folks to a tee.
If Red choices aren’t a concern, just making it a custom “no type” Hallmark seems easiest. Gets across what you can expect to do with it concisely - aside from swinging around for mobility, I’d see it tied to Hinders, Defends and Overcomes mostly, particularly with Attack/Hinder ability or risky bundles.
IIRC the reasoning came from some Dragon article about D&D critters that weren’t affected by non-magical weapons that specifically gave an example of a vampire getting arrows stuck in them without any harm being done, and contemptuously brushing them loose like a bunch of thistles - then snarling in pain when a magic sword opens up a gash in his arm.
I always like it when the game mechanics allow for different trappings depending on player tastes, without having to do massive rules changes to accommodate. The loose phrasing of SCRPG is good for that (with all the abilities being basically “use X to do Y” and let the player figure out the how). One of the very few actual play shows I follow has a a Swarmkeeper Ranger (D&D subclass, usually associated with bugs and creepy crawlies for the extra edgelord types) that has a cluster of pixies (with individual names) providing the effects.
I spent about a year playing a shapeshifter druid in 13th Age. Mechanically he was a Dwarf, but fluff-wise he was a Dwarven cave-hound (think cross between a mastiff and a bulldog the size of a small bear) that had been magically Uplifted through some unethical magical BS involving blood alchemy. Spent most of my time as a big surly dog, only adopting the Dwarf form when I needed thumbs or humanoid speech for something. The system supported that way better than most do.
Fun roleplaying a dog-by-nature, which made me kind of an anti-Dwarf. Ale is clearly poison, gold is useless except for getting idiots to give you food, and fine craftsmanship is for people born with opposable digits.
The podcast is PG rated, so they can’t make the joke, but I can and will: SIXTY-NINE, DUDES!
Chicanery, skulduggery, shenanigans…great words.
(Omg, my brain just started going “doot-dooh, dee-dudu, doot-dudu-duh, shenanigans!” Now it won’t stop! Send help.)
WellOL, the official emoji of Il LOLimento.
Tony Taurus into Heartbreaker is effectively the same as Thiago Diaz into Muerto, except he could choose to reverse the transition if he wanted to.
The Omnitron guilt question is like what if you had Hitlerdad, and you grew up in his house, loving him and idolizing him and hearing all his wonderful stories about how he protected the Fatherland by rounding up all those rascally Juden and dealing with them so the German people were free, and then growing up and having to figure out a new worldview.
The latter is definitely creepier and more viscerally upsetting. Bullets bouncing off might make you feel more helpless to defeat your foe, but having their flesh goop shut again after you saw them perforated, that’s gonna make you regret ever trying.
The Abyssal Exalted were an undead army on a mission to kill all of creation so that their masters could finally die. “Viscerally upsetting” was pretty much their whole deal!
Huh. I knew they were bad guys, but I didn’t think they were that bad; I thought I remembered the setting portraying them somewhat sympathetically, as most of the World of Darkness stuff was big on the whole edgy emo gag that was trendy back in the Goth Ages. Y’know, the whole “Lord Killdeathicus is just lonely and misunderstood, it’s society that’s the real villain for not accepting his true nature!” routine.
Well, I mean, that’s the way the Neverborn designed them – Exalted being the kind of setting it is, it’s perfectly possible to defy their intended purpose, and use the power of death to protect the living!
(There might be consequences when their bosses notice what they’re doing, but that’s just how it goes when you’re fighting the things that made your universe!)
Trevor did a great job with that.