Copyright © 1999 by Christopher A. Goodwin.
Legal stuff -- Disclaimer and About Fudge
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Building Powers
3. Tables: Range, Area, Mass
4. Character Examples
5. Combat
Introduction
The idea for FUDGE Supers came to me while I was considering how to do the Wild Cards characters and setting using FUDGE. I realized I needed rules for super powers, and what started out as idle musings turned into this. This is nothing but how to build the powers, along with some combat rules, and aren't indexed very well with the main body of the FUDGE rules. If I've made any egregious errors, please let me know.Special thanks to Carl D. Cravens for the power types.
Building Powers
One supernormal power, per the FUDGE rules, yields 8 power levels available to be spent on powers. A gift may be spent to add 4 levels worth of powers; total levels worth of powers may be combined as a pool, and all of a character’s powers may be purchased out of that pool (in fact, this is assumed throughout these rules). Attacks and defenses are given ranks, similarly to attributes and skills; I think that this gives a slightly better feel and doesn’t change things too much. It does assume that the damage of an attack is divorced a little more from the to-hit roll, although GMs may vary this as they wish.The Exchange Rate: Throughout this document, assume the following exchanges. GMs may specify otherwise for their particular campaigns.
1 gift = 4 power levels (or points)
1 gift = 2 attribute levels
1 attribute level = 2 power levels
1 fault yields 1 giftThe Powers
There are five types of powers: Attack, Defense, Movement, Senses, and Alteration.
Attack: The basic attack power has the following attributes: Damage (or Damage Potential), Range, and Area. Every level of damage or area costs 2 points per level; every level of range costs 1 point (see below for the Range and Area tables). If the attack doesn't damage the character directly (as in, for example, a bright light that blinds the target) the cost for damage is 1 point per level, unless it is considered a mental power (thus, a mentalist who had the ability to temporarily blind a target by shutting down the visual centers of his brain would pay 2 points per level). Note: Not all attacks will necessarily have a range or area attribute; unless specifically purchased, assume values of non-existent for these attributes.
Defense: The basic defense power has a Defense attribute and costs 2 points per level of Defense. If the power doesn't defend against direct, physical damage or mental powers, the cost is 1 point per level. The default Defense power may be turned on or off at will, but if it is on, it remains on even if the character is unconscious; to make a defense that drops if the character falls unconscious (such as a force field or some kind of shield the character must block with) apply a fault to the power. Note: Physical defenses are different from mental defenses; these are two separate powers.
Movement: The basic movement power has a Speed attribute, and costs 1 point per level for any movement mode a normal human would have (in other words, running, swimming, jumping, or climbing), or 2 points per level for "special" movement modes (such as teleportation, flight, or tunneling). Use the Range table for Attack powers, but double the range; this amount is the character's movement per round. Optionally, the GM may have two different types of movement: a "normal" movement attribute, which defaults to Fair and represents an ordinary human’s walking and running, and a "super" movement power which would have a higher default Scale than the normal movement.
Senses: Most Sense powers would be considered gifts, although GMs may wish to vary this up or down depending on the power. A good rule of thumb is that a sense power that is less generally useful would cost less, while active senses that are very useful might cost more (a GM might decide that Super Smell only costs 1 or 2 power levels, while X-Ray Vision or Active Sonar may be 6 or 8). Alternately, if the GM is not using a specific attribute to apply to perceptive ability (such as Perception or Intelligence), she may wish to charge 1 point per level for perceptive ability in a specific "super" sense, while granting default levels in certain senses (or maybe every character has a default of Fair for each normal sense; thus, one level of Super Smell would give the character a Good Smell). X-Ray Vision or Active Sonar might still cost one or two gifts under this circumstance.
Alteration: This is sort of the "catch all" power; any power that doesn't fall under one of the above types would end up here. The basic Alteration power has an Intensity, although it may also have Range or Area as appropriate. Changing shape, increasing or decreasing a character's attributes, growing or shrinking, and so on would be Alteration powers. A rule of thumb is that every level of attribute added or reduced costs 2 points per level; the ability to increase or decrease Mass scale costs 2 points per level as well. For ranged or area effect powers, use the same costs as for Attack powers. Telekinesis would be considered an Alteration power (effectively, super Strength usable at range); its attributes would be Intensity, Range, and Area; for Intensity, use the Mass table (below).
Instead of requiring a damage roll, the GM may instead require the player to define a reasonably common, "all or nothing" defense against the power. For example, the player may define the Alteration power as not affecting characters protected by armor. Any character wearing armor (or with the defense power of armor) would be unaffected by the power; any other character would be affected upon a successful hit.
Mental Powers: Mental powers aren't a separate power per se, but are built as regular super powers with the special effect of "mental power." They are generally targeted using a Will attribute, although a separate skill may be purchased. You can use the sample psychic abilities section from the FUDGE rules, or you can use the super powers rules here. It is suggested not to mix and match the two within the same character or even in the same campaign, as unpredictable things may happen. Any powers built using these rules would be considered narrow groups under the psychic abilities rules in FUDGE section 7.3, FUDGE Psi. Any mental power used against another character would be opposed directly by that character’s Will or any defensive mental powers the character may have (such as a mind shield).
Any unranked powers with minor, noncombat effects may be built as gifts. Examples include Sense: infrared vision or Alteration: water breathing. The GM may also reduce costs even further for less useful powers (the ability to create light on demand, for example, might be an Alteration power costing only one or two power levels).
If a power is limited in some way, the character may take one or more faults that apply to that power. The character may either take an additional gift for each fault, as normal, or may apply the fault directly against the cost of the power (noting this in the descriptions of both the power and the fault). Note: The cost of a power may not be reduced below 4 power levels by faults; if a character is taking general faults that relate to a particular power, the character must spend a minimum of 4 power levels more on the power than would be gained by the total faults that apply to that power. (No fair taking a wimpy power costing 4 power levels then getting 3 faults for reduced utility.) Some faults may apply to more than one power; this should only be done with GM permission.
Note: The GM shouldn’t get too detailed about bookkeeping as regards building powers; this is a roleplaying game, not an accounting class. The only hard and fast rule is that any powers that damage, protect from damage, or otherwise directly affect other characters should cost twice as much per level as other powers.
Any use of powers against an unwilling target (including, and especially, in combat) is considered Opposed. GMs may require characters to purchase skills to activate and/or control their powers; requiring a skill roll to activate powers can make them unreliable and may be suitable for a lower powered campaign, or to simulate other types of power (such as magic). Simply using a power would be unopposed, and in most cases should succeed; GMs should only require a roll to activate in a stressful situation, unless the character has a fault to the effect that his powers are unreliable, or unless the campaign calls for unreliable powers (for example, in a campaign where the characters all have low powered psionic ability, a la "Scanners"). Skills may be used to target or control powers; characters may have a Throw Flame Bolt skill, or an Acrobatic Flying skill.
GMs may use a Power Level attribute that functions similarly to Psychic Reserve or Magical Potential under section 7 of the FUDGE rules; Power Level could be slowly drained by extended power usage, or used to "push" a power (to increase the power level in certain circumstances).
Cost Level Range 0 Non-existent 1 meter 1 Terrible 2 meters 2 Poor 4 meters 3 Mediocre 8 meters 4 Fair 16 meters 5 Good 32 meters 6 Great 64 meters 7 Superb 128 meters
Cost: Level Area (circle with radius in meters) 0 Non-existent .5 meter 2 Terrible 1 meter 4 Poor 2 meters 6 Mediocre 4 meters 8 Fair 8 meters 10 Good 16 meters 12 Great 32 meters 14 Superb 64 meters Mass (for Strength, Telekinesis, or certain Alteration powers). Scale increases this by a factor of 1.5 per additional level of Scale.
Cost: Power Level: Amount affected: 1 Terrible 29.6 kg 2 Poor 44.4 kg 3 Mediocre 66.7 kg 4 Fair 100 kg 5 Good 150 kg 6 Great 225 kg 7 Superb 337.5 kg 8 Legendary 506.3 kg Character Examples:
Example: Loren is building the All American for a FUDGE Superheroes game. The GM has decided on a starting power level for this game of 24 power levels and 2 gifts, and requires all characters to take at least 1 fault (these levels will be assumed throughout the rest of these examples). Loren spends 6 power levels on All American’s Strength scale (this is considered Alteration), giving him Scale 4 Fair Strength and leaving 18 power levels. He spends 8 of these on Defense, giving All American +4 defense factors. He’s got 10 left, and decides to spend 8 of these to give All American a super speed power of Legendary (the GM has explicitly decided that super movement ability has a default Scale of 2) and the remaining 2 levels to bring himself to speed Scale 3. Note that he hasn’t yet spent any of his attribute levels, and so could increase his Strength even further. All American’s power list looks like this:
Powers:
Alteration: Strength Scale 4 (6 levels)
Defense: Armor - +4 Defense Factors (8 levels)
Movement: Super Speed Scale 3 - Legendary (10 levels)Total: 24 power levels
Fault: Increased appetite (constantly eating)
Example: Geoff decides to build a character, Blaze, who can fly and project flame blasts. Blaze has 24 levels to spend on powers. Geoff first decides to take a fault: All powers only work in "flame on" form. This reduces the cost of all of his powers. Geoff decides to spend 12 levels on Movement: Flying, reduced to 8 by the fault, and give Blaze a flying speed of Great. This leaves him with 16 levels. Blaze's flame blast has a range of Great (cost 6 levels) and damage of +6 (costing 12 levels, for 18 levels total; this is reduced by the fault to 14, leaving him with 2 levels). Geoff takes a fault: one level increased damage from cold- or water-based attacks, giving him 3 gifts total (his initial 2 plus 1 more for the fault). He shifts two of these into power levels, giving him 10 more to play with. He decides to spend 8 in a flaming force field (Fair damage resistance) and build in an associated fault: force field drops when Blaze is unconscious (remember, the default condition for Defense powers is to remain active when the character is unconscious). This reduces the cost of the Force Field to 4 power levels, leaving him with 6. He uses 2 of these these to increase the area effect of his flame blast, giving it an area of Poor (this adds 2 to the cost of his flame blast, bringing it to 16). He spends his remaining gift on a Sense: Infrared Vision, and has four power levels left. He puts these into attribute levels, increasing his Dexterity to Great.
Powers:
Attack: Flame blast - +6 Damage Potential, Great range (64 meters), Poor area (2 meter radius). (Cost 16 Power Levels; reduced by fault)
Defense: Flaming Force Field - +6 Defense Factors. (Cost 4 Power Levels; reduced by faults)
Movement: Flying - Great speed at Scale 2. (Cost 8 Power Levels; reduced by fault)
Sense: Infrared Vision (Cost 4 power levels [1 gift]).
Increased Dexterity (Cost 4 power levels [2 attribute levels])Gifts: 3, spent on power levels.
Total: 36 power levels
Faults:
Short tempered ("hothead")
Takes one level increased damage from cold- or water-based attacks. (taken as a gift)
Force field drops when Blaze is unconscious (reduces cost of force field power).
All powers only work in flaming form (takes 1 round to switch forms) (reduces cost of all powers).Geoff has spent a total of 3 Gifts on his power levels, giving him an additional 12; adding this to his starting amount of 24 gives him a total of 36 power levels. Everything adds up.
Example: Rubberman wants to be able to stretch his body in all kinds of bizarre ways. This is an Alteration power; the player spends 5 levels on stretching, giving him stretching of Good. The GM decides that this is range, and therefore Rubberman can stretch a total of 32 meters.
Example: Garth wants his character, Midas, to be able to turn objects into gold with a touch. This is obviously an Alteration power, and costs 2 points per level. Garth spends 8 levels and purchases the following power:
Alteration: Midas Touch - Fair (8 levels).
If Garth had wanted Midas to be unable to control the power, turning everything he touches into gold, this would be worth a fault. Garth wisely decides not to do this, remembering the example of his character’s namesake. The GM does require Midas to buy a Legendary Wealth (an unlisted attribute), to account for his ready access to immense amounts of gold.
Midas could turn 100kg of anything in particular to gold (per the Mass table). If he uses it against another character, the GM rules that he would have to hit the other character in combat, then roll damage against the character as though the power were an attack with +4 damage potential; if the target would have been taken beyond Near Death by the "damage", he would instead be turned to gold (easily doable in one shot with +4 damage). The GM might tie a character’s damage capacity in this case to Mass, to show that a smaller character has less ability to resist being turned into gold.
The GM might require Midas to actually hit his target’s unprotected skin in order to turn him to gold; if he touches his target’s shirt, his target is now wearing a very expensive gold shirt.
Example: Lisa is building Ivy, Mistress of Plants. She wants to be able to animate plants, talk to plants, and heal plants. Lisa builds three separate Powers. She purchases the animate plant power as Alteration, spending 6 levels for a Great amount (Lisa defines it as only against inanimate plants and thus avoids the doubled cost for affecting another character), and an additional 4 for Fair range. She can animate up to 225 kg of plants, or one 225 kg plant, at a range of 16 meters. For the ability to speak to plants, the GM simply has her buy a Skill: Plant Language. Healing plants is Alteration, and costs 2 points per level; she spends 14 points and purchases Superb. As she has purchased no range, she has to touch a plant in order to heal it. The GM decides that she can also use her plant healing ability to make plants grow faster, since it is pretty expensive for what it does. Her powers break down as follows:
Skills:
Language: Plant - Fair (Very Hard skill; 4 skill levels)Powers:
Alteration: Animate Plants - Great (225 kg), Fair range (16 meters) (cost 10 levels)
Alteration: Heal/Grow Plants - Superb (cost 14 levels).Total: 24 levels
Faults:
Prefers plants over people
Example: Garth is building Dr. Prism, a mentalist. He wants Dr. Prism to be able to read minds, project thoughts, mentally influence other people, and "cloud men’s minds" to make himself invisible. The GM puts mindreading and thought projection together into one telepathy power. The GM has Garth build this as a combination Attack power and Sense. For the Attack portion, Garth builds a generic Mental Attack with Great intensity and Great range. Since this isn't an attack that affects other characters physically (and technically isn't a separate attack but a "carrier" for telepathy and the other mental abilities) the GM allows Garth to buy this at a cost of 1 point per level of intensity. For the Sense portion, Garth spends 8 points on Legendary intensity.
Garth takes a fault that he must be able to see or already have mental contact with his target in order to use his mental powers; since this affects all of his powers, the GM rules that it counts as a fault against each of them. The power to mentally influence others has Great intensity, and is covered by the "must have mental contact" fault. The GM decides that no range is necessary for this one because the range is provided by the mental attack. Finally, for the invisibility power he takes a Defense power of Great intensity (2 points per level because of its utility, for 12 points). (The GM wavers over whether to call this Defense or Alteration, but decides that it doesn't matter since it would cost the same either way, so settles on Defense.) The point costs of the powers are as follows:
Powers:
Attack: Mental attack - Great intensity, Great range (8 levels; reduced by fault)
Sense: Telepathy - Legendary intensity (4 levels; reduced by fault)
Alteration: Mental influence - Great intensity, range provided by mental attack (8 levels; reduced by fault)
Defense: Mental invisibility - Great intensity, range provided by mental attack (8 levels; reduced by fault).Total: 28 levels.
Gifts: One Gift spent on power levels (raising his starting total to 28); the other spent on attribute levels, used to raise his Will to Great.
Faults:
Uneasy in social situations (crowds cause him "mental noise")
Must either be able to see target (in order to mentally attack) or have mental contact with target (using mental attack power) to use mental powers (counts as a fault against each power).
Combat
It is suggested that when running superpowered combats, the rules for alternating combat turns be used. These give a flow more consistent with most four-color superheroic comics. Of course, if different flavors are desired, the other sets of rules may be used. Optionally, when in combat with supervillains or henchmen, rule 4.33 (PCs vs. NPCs) may be used. Hit locations are seldom used in superpowered combats.Attack and Defense powers are rated with damage or defense bonuses as though they were standard attacks or armor. Use standard Fudge combat rules when refereeing Fudge Supers combat. If an attack's Damage attribute is greater than +4, then roll once for every full 4 levels of damage, and once for the remainder; add all of these results together. Defense powers act directly as defensive factors in combat.
If a Power Level or Endurance attribute is used, the GM may optionally allow characters to "push" their attacks. (This option may also be used to push Strength.) Characters may drain one level from their Power Level to increase a single attack by one level; the GM may require the character to roll against a Will stat in order to push the attack, with the amount of "push" allowed dependent on the degree of success rolled (a good rule of thumb is that the player must roll a degree of success equal to the current power level). No roll should be required if the push is for a truly heroic purpose (in order to destroy the doomsday device with one shot, or to keep the runaway bus from slamming into the orphanage). If the character’s Power Level or Endurance is reduced below Terrible, the character falls unconscious for anywhere from one round to several minutes; a Constitution or Damage Capacity check may be allowed to determine for how long. The GM may also reduce the character’s powers for a period of time after a push.
Stun
The GM may allow or require a Stun attribute. This works similarly to Damage Capacity, except that when the character’s Stun is reduced below Terrible, he is unconscious. Or, a "stun damage track" may be used that looks similar to the following:
Shocked In Pain Stunned Unconscious 0,1 2,3 4,5,6 7+ O O O O O O O O If using the Stun rules, the GM should be consistent between Stun and Damage Capacity; if a damage track is used, then a stun track should be used as well; likewise, if a Damage Capacity attribute is used, then the GM should use a Stun attribute as well.
Under the Stun rules, the full amount of damage of an attack power is considered Stun damage, and the GM should decide what proportion of this damage the character also takes as "actual" (it may vary from attack power to attack power, but half of the full attack value is a good starting amount); the GM may allow a character to decide at creation that one of his powers does a higher or lower proportion of actual to stun damage with no change in point costs, so long as the actual damage doesn’t go above what he paid for. (Note that heroic characters don’t often go around using deadly attacks against their foes.) Optionally, all damage does Stun damage as well as deadly damage; count the damage against both tracks, and characters that are Shocked or In Pain may take penalties to their actions as though they were Hurt. Another option is to have all attacks do their normal full damage as deadly, but one and a half times that (or more) in Stun damage. Any "normal" weapons, such as guns or knives, should do their full damage as deadly, with Stun damage equal to this amount. The GM should decide which option she wants to use and apply it consistently to all characters (PC and NPC). It is suggested that, whichever option is used, attacks do full damage to inanimate objects (walls, cars, windows, lampposts, etc.).
Every level of damage taken by the character either adds one level of damage to the Stun track or reduces a character’s Stun attribute by one level. If the stun damage track is not used, use the following to determine stunning or unconsciousness. If the total Stun damage of an attack, before any defenses are counted, is equal to or greater than the character’s current level of Stun attribute (or optionally a Constitution attribute, if these are different), the character is Stunned; if the character’s Stun attribute is reduced below Terrible, then the character has fallen unconscious. (In this case, count levels of Stun below Terrible; use Terrible-1, Terrible-2, etc.)
If a character is Stunned, any attacks against him are considered Unopposed until he recovers. He is incoherent and unable to move or think clearly; this includes being able to fight or give or follow instructions. Characters completely recover from Stunning after one full round of being stunned (all levels of Stunned wear off). The GM should decide when levels of Shocked or In Pain recover, but it is recommended that they last the entire combat, although if a character takes a recovery, one of these levels should fade.
If a character falls Unconscious, he is completely out of it; the character may make a roll against Constitution (exact level of success to be determined by the GM based on the level of unconsciousness and other factors) every round in order to recover one level of Stun (or mark one level of unconsciousness off the stun track). The character will not awaken until all levels of unconsciousness are removed, or until his Stun attribute is at least Terrible. The round immediately after awakening, a character is Stunned; the round after that he may act normally. (For dramatic purposes, the GM may wish to not roll for recovery for NPC villains, especially normal henchmen or goons, instead saying that those characters have been knocked unconscious for the remainder of the combat.) Optionally, a character may, while conscious, decide to do nothing and instead take a recovery. The character should roll against his Constitution stat, and on a Fair result or better will regain one level of Stun (or, to simplify matters, the GM may simply allow a character to recover one level of Stun, if doing nothing else during the round).
Whether using a stun damage track or a Stun attribute, characters may recover consciousness faster if another character is helping (by lightly slapping the character, pouring water on him, etc.). In this case, the unconscious character should automatically recover one level of Stun or lose one level of unconsciousness per round he is being helped in this way. Upon recovering consciousness, the character will still be Stunned for one round.
As a final note to GMs, using the full damage and stun rules here add a little extra complexity and bookkeeping to the game. GMs may instead wish to wing it, and use their common sense to decide when a character is knocked out or killed in superpowered combat. Also, while the Stun rules are particularly applicable to four-color heroic campaigns, they may be used in other campaigns as well.
The above materials based on FUDGE, entitled FUDGE Supers, are created by Christopher A. Goodwin and made available by Christopher A. Goodwin, and are not authorized or endorsed in any way by Steffan O’Sullivan or any publisher of other FUDGE materials. Neither Steffan O’Sullivan or any publisher of other FUDGE material is in any way responsible for the content of these materials. Original FUDGE materials © Copyright 1992-1995 Steffan O’Sullivan, All Rights Reserved.
ABOUT FUDGE
FUDGE is a role-playing game written by Steffan O’Sullivan, with extensive input from the Usenet community of rec.games.design. The basic rules of FUDGE are available on the internet via anonymous ftp at ftp.csua.berkeley.edu, and in book form or on disk from Grey Ghost Games, P.O. Box 838, Randolph, MA 02368. They may be used with any gaming genre. While an individual work derived from FUDGE may specify certain attributes and skills, many more are possible with FUDGE. Every Game Master using FUDGE is encouraged to add or ignore any character traits. Anyone who wishes to distribute such material for free may do so - merely include this ABOUT FUDGE notice and disclaimer (complete with FUDGE copyright notice). If you wish to charge a fee for such material, other than as an article in a magazine or other periodical, you must first obtain a royalty-free license from the author of FUDGE, Steffan O’Sullivan, P.O. Box 465, Plymouth, NH 03264.
Created: 3/25/99
Last Updated: 7/30/99 3:32pm EDT