Re:Birth
July 3, 2009
DAZ Studio, no postwork.
Not sure what’s going on here, but I like it.
Sometimes it’s just fun to goof around in DAZ Studio and see what turns out.
My world just got a bit more savage
July 3, 2009
My very own copy of Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition plopped through the mailbox today. This is a game that I’ve played once or twice, read Vulcan Stev’s and Uncle Bear’s posts about the game with interested curiosity (or should that be curious interest?), read the Test Drive and soaked up as much information as one body can possibly take without actually owning the game.
And now its mine! Bwahahahaha, etc.
These are my first impressions of the game, looking at it with a completely clean “new book” mind.
It’s so small!
It’s half the size of the 4e D&D Player’s Handbook in every way. If you could fold the PHB in half top-to-bottom, you’ve got the dimensions of the SWEE, and it weighs in at just 160 pages. That’s about a squillionth the size of the D&D Core Books put together. True.
It’s so big!
Despite the lack of stature, it’s also feature complete. This one teeny tiny bookette includes character generation, combat, special abilities (magic, super-powers, psionics), mass combat, GM information and even an adventure. Phew!
What’s more, none of it feels rushed or crowded. The layout is superb, especially if you’re an…. ahhhh…. older gamer whose eyesight is starting to fail. Big font, clean layout, and a wide variety of images from various genres. I like.
It might be complete, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it’s comprehensive. As a superhero RPG fan, the super-powers section was one of the first I turned to, and there’s more than enough abilities to tickle the imagination, but Mutants & Masterminds this ain’t.
I’d say it compares very well to both GURPS 4e and d20 Modern, and could easily replace both as either a solid generic engine and/or as a modern-day game for episodic action. That’s my first impression anyhow. I’ll let you know how that translates right at the game table.
Novice means just that
When I’ve played before, we used pre-generated Seasoned characters, so creating my first Novice baseline guy was a bit of an eye-opener. Your starting character in SWEE is very, very low-powered, to the point where I actually feel constrained by the character generation rules. That’s not a Good Thing, imho. In M&M terms, this feels roughly on a par with Power Level 3, but with just 30 points to play with. Or, to put it another way, take a 4e D&D character, remove all the powers and deduct 5 from all the stats.
I know the Wild Dice mechanic makes a big difference between your heroes and the rest of the world in play, but that doesn’t help at chargen where what you want to be able to do is create a character with options right there on the sheet.
Do people actually play at Novice level? Even the Pregenerated Characters from Pinnacle’s Downloads section are all Seasoned or higher.
Hopefully, that feeling is something which will go as I learn my way around the system some more. Any help or advice appreciated!
With that in mind, here’s my first SWEE character, just for y’all to pick apart.
Damn this image turned out dark. Ah well. Let’s call it ‘moody’.
Brett is a Chicago homicide detective with a chequered past (don’t they all?). His refusal to help the local Mafia led to his wife’s murder, and he’s more than a little obsessed with finding her killer once and for all. He’s convinced that his bosses know more than they let on, and his curious nature has got him into trouble more than once. He’s not the brightest ‘dick on the force, but he’s the one you want by your side when bullets and fists start flying.
Detective Brett Gudrun
Agility d4, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Pace 6, Parry 5, Tough 9 (Kevlar Vest), Cha 0Driving d4, Fighting d6, Guts d6, Investigation d6, KS:Law d4, Notice d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d4, Streetwise d6
Brawny, Curious, Deathwish (Find wife’s killer), Delusional (Minor:Convinced superiors know more than they let on)
Glock, Kevlar Vest
Now….. what would you do differently?
Thanks!
Now with added leg warmers
July 2, 2009
I’m channelling the spirit of the early ’80s. Don’t mind me.
In possibly related news, the rather lovely Shadow Dancer outfit for Victoria 4 (from whence these leg warmers come) is now 100% free. Want to see more? There ya go!
Incidentally, absolutely everything in these renders is also 100% free, from the figure to the lighting, from the poses to the hair. The whole shebang, including the program I used to make ‘em.
And this weekend, I’m going to show you how to make character portraits just like this!
Easy peasy.
How to Build a Transformer
July 2, 2009
Ben asked how to make a Transformer using Mutants & Masterminds. Here’s how!
Giant Transforming Robots are fun, not only to watch but also to build and play. They are Giant, they Transform, and they’re Robots. What’s not to love? In Mutants & Masterminds terms that means they’re built as Constructs (pg 148), have Growth (pg 87) and the ability to Morph (pg 94) from one form to another.
Here’s a quick example how to put these together and build Enzo, a robot who can turn into a Ferrari!
Seriously. It’s almost there already.
As a Robot, Enzo has Immunity (Fortitude Saves), and his Con is bought back all the way to zero, for a net cost of 20 points. Robots don’t make Fort saves – they’re immune to disease, poison and all the other things that are liable to affect use squishy folks.
Next up is Growth. It’s Permanent, so costs 3 points per rank (rather than the usual 4/rank), and every 4 points increases him by a Size category. I envisage a transforming Ferrari to be big, but certainly not the most humongous around. Growth 6 feels about right – Large sized, and about 12 foot tall. That works.
Growth 6 also adds +12 STR for free (and +6 CON, but as a robot it doesn’t count). That bumps him up to STR 22 before we even adjust his stats.
Next, his ability to transform. Not much of a Transformer without it, eh?
There’s a variety of ways to alter your shape in Mutants & Masterminds, but Morph is the one you want in this case. It’s 1 point per rank as he’s just got one other form (da Ferrari!), and we take the Metamorph Feat as his traits change when he shifts form – he’s a lot faster, for a start. Morph 4 should do it. That gives him +20 on his Disguise checks when he’s in his alternate form. It’s a free action to shift from one form to another; we could change that to taking a move action instead which would reduce the points cost from 5 down to 3. I leave it as a free action for Enzo as I like the idea of him being able to take a running leap, morph into a car and speed away. Nice.
For the car form, I’ll just use the Sports Car stats from the Core Book for now and build a Ferrari Enzo another time. The Vehicle building rules are fun too!
So there’s our basic Transformer setup and we’ve just spent 43 points so far. If this is a PL 10 hero with 150 points to use, there’s 107 left to personalize our Transformer and provide Powers, stats and bonuses. For Enzo I’d make him agile and darned fast even in Robot form.
Something like this, perhaps……….
Enzo, PL10 150pp
Str 24, Dex 20, Con -, Int 14, Wis 13, Cha 22
Tough +6, Fort Immune, Ref +12, Will +5
Attack +10, Defense +10, Init +9Growth 6 (12′ tall, Permanent)
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves)
Morph 4 (into Ferrari Enzo, +20 Disguise, Metamorph)
Protection 6 (Impervious)
Speed 4 (100mph, 880′/round)Bluff +10, Disable Device +6
Improved Initiative 1, Move-By Action, Teamwork 1
For larger Transformers increase the Growth with an eye on the Size Table on page 34. A 30′ tall Transformer such as Rocket would be roughly Growth 10. Here’s a quick build for him:
Rocket, PL10 150pp
Str 30, Dex 12, Con -, Int 12, Wis 8, Cha 16
Tough +10, Fort Immune, Ref +3, Will -1
Attack +8, Defense +8, Init +1Growth 10 (Huge, 30′ tall, Permanent)
Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves)
Morph 4 (into Rocket Platform, +20 Disguise, Metamorph, Flaw: Move action)
Protection 10 (Impervious)
Blast 10 (100′, DC25, Area:Explosion 50′ radius)Intimidate +11
Power Attack
Enjoy!
DAZ Freebie of the Week: Giant Transforming Robot!
June 30, 2009
Did I mention it’s big?
And this ain’t your grandpa’s Transformer neither. This one turns into a frickin’ portable rocket platform! If that’s not enough, it comes with a bigass rifle too, because everyone knows that a rifle is just what you need when you’ve got rocket launchers for arms. Mummy.
Did I mention it’s free?
Anyone want a render of a Transformer versus a Dragon………… ?!?!
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