I Got My Mass Effect In Your Mutants & Masterminds

Just a few preliminary thoughts before I really get going on this idea:

1. Characters should be built to about PL 6. Possibly as high as 8. The reason being that I want them to feel “superior” what with the powered armor and whatnot, but I want them armed with basically standard firearms out of the core book. Most of which (not counting the rocket launcher and whatnot) are about Damage Rank 5. So that said, most characters are likely going to be SLIGHTLY shifted toward accuracy on their Accuracy/Damage tradeoffs. At least with ranged attacks.
2. Everyone involved is new to the system, so I want to make the character generation portion of the game as simple and streamlined as possible. This most likely means either pre-generated characters (IE, Archetypes) or putting together a set of genre related templates. Either way, I need to cover the following bases: Adept, Sentinel, Engineer, Infiltrator, Soldier, Vanguard.
3. Powers come from three basic sources: Training (combat related powers, anything that lets a person use guns in an atypical way, things like variable descriptor for bullets), Biotics (telekinesis, “mass effect fields”, gravity manipulation and similar, and occasionally things like mind control) Tech (advanced hacking, combat drones, holographic manipulation, cloaking, etc). There may be some overlap between areas, IE, I’m not opposed to the idea of finding a way to use biotics to do stealth just because it doesn’t appear in the source material.
4. The Archetypes/Templates: Adapt is pure Biotic, Sentinel is Biotic/Tech, Vanguard is Biotic/Combat, Engineer is pure Tech, Infiltrator is Tech/Combat, and Soldier is pure Combat, where in this case Combat means “guns,” as opposed to the combat portions of the game.
5. Cover is the most important thing in Mass Effect, and I’m going to work to make it important in this game session, too. Partly this will be about encounter design, and partly it will be about giving the bad guys lots of automatic weapons. Bottom line, by the time I’m done I need to REALLY know the rules for cover and automatic weapons and make the players PAY when they don’t bother with cover. 😛
6. I’m still deciding what to do about alien races. Hm. Each one should get a write-up here, though, and some thoughts about how I’d handle each.

>The TARDIS

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Using the M&M 3e headquarters rules, I offer the following TARDIS…
Headquarters Traits:

Size: Interior: Huge (Like, say, a castle). Exterior: Miniscule (Blue police box). 3 points

Toughness: 20 (Base value 6). 7 equipment points.

Features: Time Travel, Space Travel, Teleportation, Dimensional Travel, (2 points each to affect both the TARDIS and its occupants). Dual Size, Communications, Computer, Library, Secret (it looks like a strange blue box), fire prevention system, gym (complete with swimming pool!), laboratory, living space, power system, self-repairing, security system (locks and alarms. Good luck getting in the door without a key). 20 equipment points.

Total cost: 30 equipment points, 6 power points. Surprisingly cheap!

>Back in the Saddle

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So, it’s been awhile since I was able to practice what I preach in the slightest; games spend more time falling apart for me than coming together. However! Finally, finally, finally, in spite of all the rough stuff that’s happened lately, I managed to run a quick solo game of DC Adventures for my buddy (and sometimes Dm) Vincent. We’d had it on the books for awhile; I told him I needed to get more comfortable running games in front of people, and to make it as fast as possible I just gave him something we could both connect with instantly. 

I handed him the character sheet for Batman. 

The setup: Joker has captured Catwoman and he’s holding her in an abandoned candy factory on the south side of Gotham. Go. 

Yes, I know; it’s a tad cliche. Truth be told, I wanted it to be – a well used cliche creates an instant sense of familiarity, and for a one-shot session like this one it worked pretty well. I set the scene (It’s night. In Gotham, is there any other time?) briefly, and just for fun I throw in some Batman-centric music the minute my player utters the immortal words, “I’m Batman.” It is probably more a testament to how lighthearted I want this to be than anything else, but we’re both laughing by now, despite the seriousness of the situation. Batman, of  course, is not laughing.

I would also like to point out for the formal record that this is the only part of the session that I had preplanned. It showed a little bit later, I think (more than I would have liked) but everything still ran very smoothly. I was impressed!

Batman opted to park the Batmobile at a small distance from the factory, where it would be well out of sight of any of Joker’s thugs. Using his grapple gun and some agility, he easily navigated the rooftops to reach his destination. 

My player asked me what he could see, and I told him that there were about four thugs outside the candy factory (“Typical of the Joker to so utterly corrupt something once associated with mirth and the joy of children,”) and that it was a large, warehouse-like structure. I was still sketching broad strokes, and while I’d have liked to provide more detail (I did once have to prompt, “You should be asking me questions about the area, not waiting for me to provide answers,”) it seemed to work. 

“I’m going to try getting one of them alone.” 

Hard to empathize with this face, isn’t it?

Applauding his thinking (very Batman like), I informed him that one of the thugs was around the corner from the others, and could probably be caught unawares. 

Player: “Okay, can I swing down with my grapple gun and hit him?” 

GM: “Heck yes, you can! Would you like to make a routine attack?” 

Player: -Gleefully- “Of course.”

Ah, minions. Meant solely to make the hero look good, they go down fast with hardly a dice roll necessary for the hero. After all, this isn’t the part of the story that’s supposed to be hard. We’re saving that for the big showdown with the boss, right?

A little more negotiation, and two of the remaining three thugs go down from well thrown Batarangs. The third winds up being a bit more troublesome (a particularly lucky roll on the part of the minion meant that he didn’t go down in a single hit), but Batman was unscathed. I was treated to a few lovely descriptions of Batman’s brutal finishing moves, which was a blast for both of us. 

Grappling up to the rooftop stealthily, Batman looked about. Amid the smokestacks and a pair of skylights, he noticed two more thugs facing the other end of the building. A well thrown Batarang took them each down before either could react to his presence; as they slumped to the roof, Batman slipped over to the skylights and checked out the situation inside. 

The main factory floor was crawling with minions, while the second skylight opened into an office suite. Inside was The Joker, taunting Catwoman, who was tied to a chair. 

Yes, corny, I know. In my defense, I was winging it, and it’s been a pretty long time since I had to make up the details as I went (an important skill for me to master, in my own estimation). 

After a bit of thought, Batman opted to quietly open the first skylight and bomb the factory floor with tear gas pellets. Once he felt he’d distracted the Joker, he leaped through the skylight to flatten his old enemy. 

Which he did. Easily. Odd. 

“Nice move, Bats. Too bad it wasn’t the real Joker.” 

Batman moved to free Catwoman as the Joker’s maniacal laughter rang out over the loudspeaker. “Come on, Batman, you didn’t think it would be that easy, did you? AhaahahaAHAAAAAHahahaaa. . . Come find me, Bats– I dare you.” 


I have to admit, this was one bit I felt pretty good about – I was complemented afterward for, as he put it, “doing the voices.” Sometimes, it’s the little touches that make or break a performance . . . 

NEXT: THE JOKER!

>Recommended Reading – DC Adventures Notes

>Wizard’s of the Coast has started their new series of blogs already; I’ve been paying loose attention, but this article about teaching children D&D was pretty interesting: click here.

I’m starting to think that my attempts to “teach” role-playing concepts have suffered partly because I put too much emphasis on the details that really don’t actually matter until you sit down at the table. So. We’ll see if I can adjust my paradigm a bit on that front for the new players in my audience (and to avoid boring those of you who already know the rules, anyway).

And, for those of you who may be playing in my DC Adventures game later … you may find this a useful resource. The DC Adventures Quick Start PDF contains all the basic rules necessary to play the game boiled down into a few pages, as well as a pair of sample characters and an adventure to mess around with. I’d recommend reading page 1, and skimming pages 2 and 3. Pages 4 and 5 are the sample characters, and the rest of it is the sample adventure – just take a look at the first few pages, it’ll explain a lot and give you a solid background. The rest will be easy to pick up when the game starts.

If you really couldn’t care less about reading through it ahead of time, just come to the game and you’ll figure everything you need to know out as you go.

The game isn’t yet scheduled, but the plan (as mentioned previously) is to play iconic DC Comic’s characters. If you’d like to find a few ideas, I recommend taking a look through the DC Comics Wikia – check out Wonder Woman, Power Girl, Zatanna, The Huntress, Batgirl, Supergirl, Black Canary, Hawkgirl, Big Barda – just a few of my favorites. (I’d list male heroes, too, but I only have one guy playing and he’s already declared his preference.) There are many, many, MANY others, but these are just the ones that pop into my head at first thought.

I’d apologize for the way women are drawn in comics, but honestly, considering what’s featured on television these days I don’t think comics need to apologize anymore (the only reason that they’ve ever had anything to apologize for is a mistaken assumption on the part of governments that comic books are “for kids.”) But that’s an issue for an editorial post, which this is not.

>Solo Play: Benefits and Pitfalls

>I’m going to try and be as system neutral about this particular post as I can, but we’ll see where it goes.

There are basically two kinds of roleplaying experiences; there’s group play, which involves the more standard tropes of the RPG; GM, four to six players, focus on team dynamics and tactical play – with teamwork! – are usually the emphasis, though this varies depending on the group of course. Some people love delving into things related directly to the characters they’ve created – I fall into this category. Others just want to get together, kill monsters, and take all their stuff.

This does allow for a particular class of stories that doesn’t work well in the absence of a team; the group can also face and overcome threats that any one of them would be unable to defeat. Plus, there’s a certain fun kind of humor that inevitably creeps into the game if you have a good group to play with. And I love playing in group games… as long as the people in them are fun to play with.

A solo game opens up a whole new set of options, however. In a solo game, you can do things that a group just wouldn’t be willing to take the time for. You can develop friendships with NPC’s; you can perform stealth infiltration missions that would bore a large, non-stealth focused party; you can be the Last Son (or daughter!) of a dead planet/kingdom/dimension; you can grandstand and show off without worrying about hogging the spotlight, because it’s yours. You can found a kingdom and protect it, if circumstances allow; you can tell any kind of story that interests the both of you.

A solo game requires one GM, one player, and a willingness to improvise a LOT on the part of both of them. Party based games are often played fairly close to the ‘rails’; with some room for variation, they go where the GM wants them to go. Solo games can’t really afford to have rails; they have to follow the story of the player. If it’s handled right, the world is a big sandbox with any number of things to do in it.

Solo gaming was how I started role-playing; my GM didn’t use a system, which suggests to my mind that there were a few rails that I wasn’t aware of, but basically the story was shaped by my choices, and it was great.

Now, there are obvious benefits to using a system; fair resolution of conflict, avoiding the ‘silver-age’ syndrome where a character makes up their skills and powers to overcome circumstance ‘on-the-fly’, adding the influence of ‘luck’ into the game – these are nothing new to anyone who has used a system with regularity. But using some kind of rules makes sure that the game is fair.

The one problem in the minds of some GMs/DMs is that the game systems we use tend to be designed for groups of 4 or so. How do you fix that?

Well, it depends. But it’s probably not as bad as you might think. I’ll talk about some of those ideas in a later entry, as they relate to my two favorite systems at the moment; M&M 3e, and D&D 4e. Right now, though, all I’m trying to get at is that not having “enough players” shouldn’t stop you from having fun.


Excelsior!

>D&D 4th Edition Houserules: Fixing the Rituals System

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Hurry up with that ritual! We need him to beat the boss!

As I said in my last post, I actually like a lot about 4th edition D&D. I’ve heard mixed reports from various sources with their own opinions about the rituals system, and Essentials seems to have avoided the issue entirely; it certainly looks as though WoTC has noticed that rituals just … aren’t being used that much.

Which is a shame, in some ways, because they’re a great idea. They provide new ways for a magically oriented character to shine, and have the additional advantage that any character willing to invest the feat choices into training can learn to use them. BUT, they cost too much as a general rule, asking players to invest gold that could be spent on gear or magical aid into one time effects.

Using the proposed Classic Fantasy Concepts houserule from StufferShack (an excellent resource, by the way) – or some other variant of the “Inherent Bonuses” option to replace magic items – mitigates some of this problem, but there’s still only so much loot to go around. Most players don’t want to spend it on a one time effect.

There are three proposals I like:

1. Eliminate the cost associated with any ritual besides Raise Dead or the magic item creation rituals, assuming that the time expenditure is enough of a downside. Or;
2. Grant anyone with the Ritual Caster feat the ability to cast one ritual per day of their level or lower for free.
3. Make the highest level rituals the focus of quests, and low level rituals free but for the time requirement. 

Mutants and Masterminds has its own ritual system, which sadly would be next to impossible to adapt to D&D 4th Edition; rituals in M&M are again done through the use of a Feat (or Advantage, as they’re now called), and are designed by the player when they’re needed using the same powers framework as the rest of the book. They take an amount of time based on the number of points the effect costs, and require a skill check associated with magic (“Expertise: Magic in DC Adventures/3E M&M, but other types of rituals are possible) with a DC based on rank. That time can be shortened if you take a penalty on the skill check to rush the ritual. Whatever the effect is, it works for one encounter.

The key advantage to this is that it’s fairly unified with the way Powers already work in M&M, and still prevents the magic user from becoming a “Master of Everything” that renders the rest of the party useless. It also means rituals will mainly be used when you need an ‘edge’ in an encounter you know is coming, giving players incentive to think intelligently and plan ahead for the final battle when they can.

I have plans at the moment to get involved in an Essentials based game with my friendly DM (when I’m not busy with school), so I may post more on this issue later. For now, though, I’ll leave it at that. D&D has my attention again, and it’s kind of a good feeling. None of the issues I have had with the system are insurmountable. I like to think that’s true of most game systems, but there are some out there that just won’t appeal to everyone … especially me.

But just a shout out, if anyone from Wizards ever reads this; you did good. D&D 4th Edition is a great game, and it’s bound to get better as time goes on. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear on that point in any of my other writings; it’s far too easy to talk about what you don’t like about something than it is to remember all the good things.

Image copyright Wizards of the Coast, intended for illustrative purposes only.

 Update, Tuesday, October 05, 2010:

It seems I should have read the book I recently purchased more closely. The new Cleric build actually has Utility powers at the higher levels that replace the Raise Dead ritual (almost) entirely with a Daily power. Perhaps this represents the official solution to the issue; roll the most useful rituals into the Utility Powers subsystem?

>Thief 4: Defenses (and offenses?) in M&M/DCA

>As the final entry in this series, and for the benefit of those new to the system, I’m going to discuss a little bit about Defenses and how they work in DC Adventures, along with something of how they might relate to the real world. 

Defenses: 15 pp
Dodge 7, Parry 8, Toughness 4, Will 6, Fortitude 6

As you can see, there are 5 primary defenses in the DC Adventures game, each one modified by a different ability – and in some cases, by powers or advantages. Defenses exist in pairs; Dodge/Toughness, Parry/Toughness, and Will/Fortitude. Each pair cannot have a total rank higher than twice your characters PL – in this case, twice the PL is 12. Certain types of characters will emphasize one over the other. Our thief is agile, better able to avoid attacks, but less able to shrug off the ones that hit. A barbarian or heavily armored fighter type might go the other way.


Dodge is a measure of how well a character can avoid ranged attacks; bullets, energy blasts, thrown objects, arrows, and so on. It also affects a characters ability to reduce the impact of explosions and similar effects. Parry is the ability to avoid close – or melee – attacks. This includes both evading and actively turning blows aside.

Put more simply, Dodge and Parry determine how hard it is for an enemy to hit you. In game terms, the DC – or Difficulty Class – of an attack roll is determined like this:

Dodge/Parry + 10 = DC

The attacker rolls 1d20 + Appropriate Modifiers, and compares the result to the DC. Which brings us back to the core mechanic of the game. Elegant, no? 

If the various modifiers are confusing at all, your GM can help you remember, but most character sheets will already have your most common attacks totaled out for you on them; all you have to remember is 1d20 + The correct number. But for the record, they work like this:

Ranged: Dexterity + Ranged Combat Specialty Skill + Ranged Attack Advantage
Close: Fighting + Close Combat Specialty Skill + Close Attack Advantage

There are one or two other modifiers that might come up in special cases, but generally these are the ones you’ll have to worry about. Back to defenses!

Okay, so you know the basics about how one avoids getting hit. What happens if you get hit?

That’s where Toughness comes in. Toughness is just like it sounds; it’s a measurement of your physical ability to resist being significantly hurt. The ability to shrug off a blow and keep fighting.

Toughness works a little differently than the other defenses. Once you know if an attack hits, the defender has their own roll to make; a Toughness roll. The DC is the damage bonus of the attack + 15.

Here’s an example. Our thief gets hit by a hammer wielding barbarian. That hammer packs a wallop, with a total damage bonus of +8 – and given our thief’s ability to avoid being seen, that’s quite a feat. Our thief now has to roll 1d20 + 4, and needs to roll a total of 23 or higher to avoid being hurt (on the dice, that means a roll of 19). Needless to say, fighting such a barbarian head on would probably not be his best move.

On the other hand, using hit and run tactics and taking advantage of his partial concealment, our thief might do fairly well. The barbarian I mentioned only has a +4 bonus to hit – and partial concealment cuts that in half! – which means that the barbarian has to roll a 16 or higher in order to hit the rogue in the first place. If the thief uses the defensive attack action, the barbarian will have to roll even higher to hit him. And of course, a good thief won’t fight fair.

Hopefully, this will give you a decent primer on some of the basics of combat in M&M/DCA.

>Thief part 3: Powers, Effects, Descriptors, and Power Points

>What follows is a brief primer on how Powers are built and work in DC Adventures, using the Thief from the previous entry as a discussion point. Feel free to refer back to the character sheet if anything here is unclear, and of course questions and comments are always welcome!

Powers are built from two separate important components: Descriptors, and Effects. Descriptors are free; Effects cost Power Points. The secondary components are Extras and Flaws.

A Descriptor is a word or set of words that define what a power looks, sounds, smells, or otherwise acts like, a little bit about how it might interact with other powers, and other details such as where it comes from (origin). For example, our thief has two different kinds of powers; powers that come from Training, and powers that come from his Elven heritage. These are both Origin descriptors. As another example, a Mage might have powers with the Magic descriptor, which might define both origin and effects; he might also have a Blast power with the Fire descriptor.

Certain descriptors have inherent properties. Fire, for instance, can be used to set things on … well, on fire. Makes sense, right? A power with the Water or Ice descriptor might be used to put the fire out. A sword has the Slashing descriptor, which tells you that it can be used to cut things. A club has the Smashing or Bludgeoning descriptors. A Cleric or Angel might have powers with the Sacred or Holy descriptor.

In short? Descriptors are Adjectives and Adverbs. Any effect can have any descriptor, baring your GM choosing otherwise; but if you can find a logical explanation for why it works that way, it’s probably fine.

Just to be sure, though, always ask your GM what kinds of descriptors might be allowed in your setting – in a low magic setting, for instance, magic might not be an appropriate descriptor to use for powers. 

The second part of power creation is the choice of Effects. These are the Verbs; they define what a power does. Things like Teleportation, Flight, Damage, Telepathy, Concealment – these are all Effects.

Extras and Flaws are things that modify an Effect further, changing how it works to make it more or less effective – and more or less expensive. Limited is a Flaw; No Attack Roll is a combination of an Extra (Perception, +2/rank) and another flaw (Close Range Only -1/rank – added by a reasonable GM). Different extras and flaws have differing values, and your GM should be consulted during this part of the process if you need help deciding whether a particular extra or flaw is a good idea.

To construct a power, first give it a label; something like Evasive, in the case of our thief. Figure out what it does; in this case, it makes it harder to figure out where he is at any particular moment. This suggests a Concealment effect, but not at full strength – he’s not invisible, just harder to hit. Partial is the right flaw, here, as is another flaw that says it only works if he keeps moving. This drops the cost to 1/2 ranks.

After this, it’s only a matter of deciding how many ranks are needed to make the power fit the concept (he’s harder to see with precision, but not to hear or detect with magical senses), and then applying any other descriptors – or, to put it in conventional literary terms, describing what it looks like when he’s using the move. I’m picturing a rapid dance of footwork and precise movements of limbs that make it even more difficult to land a solid hit on him.

A last reminder; Power Points are the building blocks of your entire character, as well as providing a reward for “experience” that a character gains over their adventures. Every special trait that a character has – skills, advantages, powers, abilities, and defenses – has an associated cost in Power Points. Advancement in these is fairly slow – generally around 1 per session or adventure – because they’re intended to reflect the way characters grow and develop in most novels, movies, and comicbooks. Which is to say, slowly if at all; most literary characters start the story somewhat awesome, unless it’s an origin story or a martial arts epic that features a lot of training montages. 

>Thief Part 2: Abilities, Advantages, Skills

>Having reviewed the Thief archetype from the previous entry, I was forced to make a few edits in order to get his dagger skill up to snuff. The result is below: 

Thief: PL 6, 90 pp
Tradeoffs: Close Combat +2, -2 Damage, +2 Defenses, -2 Toughness

Abilities: 28 pp
Strength 0, Stamina 2, Dexterity 1, Agility 4, Awareness 2, Intellect 1, Fighting 4, Presence 0

Advantages: 6
Jack of All Trades, Luck 2 (Limited: Only attack rolls), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, All Out Attack, Move-By Action, Defensive Roll 2, Improved Critical 1 (Daggers)

Equipment:
Shortbow: Ranged Damage 4, Improved Critical
Daggers: Strength-Based Damage 2, Improved Critical 2

Skills: 31 pp
Athletics 8, Acrobatics 6, Perception 8, Insight 6, Close Combat (Daggers) 6 (+10) Ranged Combat (Shortbow) 7, Expertise: Streetwise 4, Persuasion 8, Sleight of Hand 9,

“Powers”: 10 pp
Elven Traits: 4 pp
Enhanced Advantage (Luck 2), Limited: Only attack rolls
Low-light vision
Elven Grace: Speed 1, Enhanced Advantage: Improved Initiative

The Way of the Streets: (Rogue Training): 6 pp
Affliction 4 (Vulnerable): Action +2 (Free), Linked (To movement) Flat +1 point, No Attack Roll +1, Flaws: -2 (degree only), Check Required -1 (Acrobatics): 2/rank +1: 5 pp

Evasive: Concealment 2 (Normal Vision): Flawed: Partial -1, Limited: Must Move. 1 pp

Defenses: 15 pp
Dodge 7, Parry 8, Toughness 4, Will 6, Fortitude 6

 So, let’s talk a bit about what all that means in the real world. . . and in the world of the game. What do the numbers mean?

Abilities: In DC Adventures, a value of 0 is the human average for an Ability. Strength of 0, for instance, let’s you lift about 100 pounds (though you wouldn’t be able to throw it), and easily lift and handle around 50 pounds. Each rank doubles that amount moving up the chart. Of course, doubling is a little abstract for abilities like Intellect . . . but the principle holds.

According to this lovely set of benchmarks, he has average strength and presence, above average dexterity and intellect, and is particularly gifted in the area of stamina and awareness. Where he really excels is his agility and fighting skills; while not superhuman by any means, a value of 4 is enough to mark him as being among the best in the world. Our thief has mad skills!

Advantages are special traits; more ways in which a character stands out from those around him/her. Our thief is a Jack of All Trades; he can attempt to use any skill, even those that normally require special training. Power Attack lets him hit harder at the cost of accuracy, while All Out Attack lets him gain accuracy at the expense of his defenses. He’s a little bit reckless when pulling a finishing move, but he’ll be doing his best to slip away stealthily after an attack, counting on his speed and sneakiness to avoid the possibility of retaliation. Defensive Roll lets him “roll with the punches,” avoiding damage through agility.

His skill choice is pretty standard for a roguish type. Athletics covers things like swimming, climbing, and running, Acrobatics for things like leaping, tumbling, diving, and balancing – he’s an agile gymnast, and his time on the streets has made him great at it. Perception – like many elves, our thief has very sharp eyes, and won’t miss many details. Insight is used for discerning motives and determining a person’s true intentions. Close Combat (Daggers) and Ranged Combat (Shortbow) are for just what they sound like, adding to his combat skills and making him better than world class in some ways – practical experience puts him ahead of the Olympics. Expertise: Streetwise concerns everything else he’ll need for life on the streets – finding contacts, knowing where to fence a stolen object or magical relic, or knowing the name of the leader of the local thieves guild. Persuasion – for persuading, and Sleight of Hand for picking pockets and hiding his daggers. The one thing he’s missing is a Stealth skill, but thanks to his “powers” he starts to make up for it somewhat.

Skills work much the same in any d20 system, so for those who are unfamiliar I’ll explain them here. Take the number of ranks, add the appropriate ability score, and then roll a d20; compare the result to whatever the difficulty of the task is, and if it’s equal or higher, you succeed. Which is actually how most things work in the d20 system.

I’ll talk about the rest of the build in my next post.

>Fantasy Archetypes: The Thief

>I’m excited about the new product from Wizards, D&D Essentials. Here’s why.

Essentials features new builds for 4e, still compatible with what has come before, but distinctly different. Most spectacular of these changes, in my mind, are the new Rogue and Fighter variants. Based on the previews I’ve seen so far, I’m especially fond of the new rogue – dubbed, “Thief.”

Since I love showing how to try different ideas using Mutants and Masterminds, I thought I’d take a look today at how we’d design a character to play like the thief – a fast moving, agile, occasionally hard hitting, agile trickster of a swordsman (or dagger master, I have yet to decide).

With a shortbow for ranged attacks. I’m SO glad that the rogue is getting this back in 4e, I have to nod to it here.

No, not that thief. . .

First, a few words about his history. We’ll need a name for our archetypical rogue; let’s call him . . . Thief. That’s a nice name for a thief, right?

I’m kidding, but since this is meant to be an archetype I can afford to leave his character a bit underdeveloped.

Our Thief is a dashing youngish human from an urban population, who lived by his wits for the earliest years of his life. As such, he’s developed a number of skills and tricks of the trade that would make him a valuable addition to any adventuring party. Unlike Aladdin, he was never lucky enough to meet Robin Williams.

Actually, running with the joke I made earlier, let’s go ahead and make this thief an Elf. I start working from the following concept: “Elven Thief,” and build towards that. I decide that my elf will have the following traits granted by his racial heritage:

Abilities: Awareness +1, Dexterity+1, Agility +1
Skills: Perception 2, Insight 2
Powers: Enhanced Advantage (Luck 2), Limited: Only attack rolls 
Low-light vision
Elven Grace: Speed 1, Improved Initiative

This gives me a 12 point racial template loosely based on the Elf of D&D 4e, but adapted slightly with my particular character in mind. This elf was raised by humans (in a city no less), so he doesn’t have much in the way of his races natural affinity for the wilderness. He’s quick on his feet, and quicker thinking. He also has his people’s natural gift for accuracy – Luck let’s him reroll the dice if he gets a bad number and hopefully get a higher one.

The finished archetype looks like this:

Thief: PL 6, 90 pp
Tradeoffs: Close Combat +2, -2 Damage, +2 Defenses, -2 Toughness

Abilities: 28 pp
Strength 0, Stamina 2, Dexterity 1, Agility 4, Awareness 2, Intellect 1, Fighting 4, Presence 0

Advantages: 8
Jack of All Trades, Luck 2 (Limited: Only attack rolls), Improved Initiative, Power Attack, All Out Attack, Move-By Action, Defensive Roll 2, Improved Critical 1 (Daggers), Improved Critical 2 (Shortbow)

Equipment:
Shortbow: Ranged Damage 4
AE: Daggers: Strength-Based Damage 2, Improved Critical 2

Skills: 29 pp
Athletics 8, Acrobatics 6, Perception 8, Insight 6, Close Combat (Daggers) 2, Ranged Combat (Shortbow) 7, Expertise: Streetwise 4, Persuasion 8, Sleight of Hand 9,

“Powers”: 10 pp
Elven Traits: 4 pp
Enhanced Advantage (Luck 2), Limited: Only attack rolls
Low-light vision
Elven Grace: Speed 1, Enhanced Advantage: Improved Initiative

The Way of the Streets: (Rogue Training): 6 ppAffliction 4 (Vulnerable): Action +2 (Free), Linked (To movement) Flat +1 point, No Attack Roll +1, Flaws: -2 (degree only), Check Required -1 (Acrobatics): 2/rank +1: 5 pp

Evasive: Concealment 2 (Normal Vision): Flawed: Partial -1, Limited: Must Move. 1 pp

Defenses: 15 pp
Dodge 7, Parry 8, Toughness 4, Will 6, Fortitude 6

 And there you have it! Next time I’ll do a design journal where I’ll talk a bit about what all that means for those who aren’t M&M veterans. See you next entry, and DFTBA.