Friday, August 24, 2012

Earther Stunt Package For Barsoom

The lower gravity of Mars enables Earthmen to commit astounding feats of dexterity, agility, and strength. The special abilities possessed by an Earthman when they are on Barsoom can be represented by a stunt package that is accessible to Earthers only during the time they are on the planet Mars.

Frank Frazetta

OGL MECHANICS

Jasoomian Leap - By spending a Fate point, an Earther can leap up to 5 zones away in a single move action. This allows an Earther to completely escape combat if they choose to do so. Alternatively, a Jasoomian may simply reposition him/herself 1-5 zones away from their previous position. If cover is available in the vicinity of their destination, the Earther may take advantage of that cover by making a successful Athletics roll for their landing.

Jasoomian Might - Earthers are capable of great feats of strength. Moving or lifting heavy objects requires 2 shifts less than it normally would. Also, by spending a Fate point, a Jasoomian may add +4 to any physical strike on a Barsoomian person or creature, or inanimate object.*

Weakness - Earthers lack the skill in telepathy that almost all Martians possess at a rudimentary or higher level. While Barsoomians can communicate with people nearby them by using telepathy, visitors from Jasoom will need to learn to speak Barsoomian languages.


*Jasoomian Might is similar to the combined Might Stunts of Herculean Strength and Piledriver (SBA p.175).


5 comments:

  1. Cool! I don't think I've ever seen anybody bother to put this in game terms before.

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  2. Thanks, Trey! Jim and Jody Garrison were my sounding board for this idea last week. I did not want to do a design that "punished" all Barsoomians with a negative modifier, so I tried to think through how to modify visitors from Earth with a couple of gravity related bonuses, and the lack of telepathy weakness (for which there is support in the text).

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  3. pretty awesome. I like the flaw as well.. do you see it as a 2 point refresh cost package?

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  4. Pretty nice work. Do you envision using it a a 2 point refresh cost package?

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  5. I think this works with a two or three point reduction in starting FPs/refresh rate for SBA.

    Diaspora doesn't really reduce starting FPs/refresh rates as part of character builds (everyone starts at 5 FPs and for my home campaign's normal 2 hour sessions I have people refresh to 3 FPs anyway) so I think your options if you are using Diaspora are to either reduce the Earther's refresh rate by 2 (which probably works fine as long as PCs normally refresh to 5 FPs, or leave things alone and keep things a bit unbalanced.

    Some of the mechanical advantages of being an Earther will be mitigated through roleplay and Compel mechanics. Earthers will have the natural disadvantage of having to deal with all kinds of Compels due to not looking like a Red Martian and not knowing Martian culture well.

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