Help for first campaign

Ascendant Forums
1

Hello all.

So, going to have character Gen for my 1st Ascendant Game. None of us have played previously in this system but most of the group except for 1 dude are fairly experienced table top players.

We just wrapped up a game were we were playing Mutants and Masterminds 3rd edition with the DC universe rules they published over a decade ago, ended it about a month ago. This campaign is going to be a direct sequel picking up 6 months later in universe. 4 confirmed returning characters. 1 likely to return but not confirmed. 1 will not be returning (reason is that player is taking over GMing so the GM of the previous game can have a shot at running a PC.)

I’m looking for help to get my character and one other player, the new guys, character, converted over to Ascendant mechanically from 3rd edition Mutants and Masterminds. He was playing a speedster with a few fluff editions (his back story was he was a mechanic that was abducted by space aliens that made him a cyborg and as a result, a speedster.).

And I was playing a Spider-man Expy (the pitch was “What if Peter Parker had a dollars worth of common sense instead of all the super science stuff he can do?” The end result was a spiderman style character working his way up in his civilian ID to becoming a master electrician in his normal ID.)

I also Want to figure out making an addition to the character. I want to make him immune too magic. I have an in universe narrative explanation for how this happened, I just want to get it mechanical. (Note: Magic is not when a mythological god shows up. So, to illustrate this, if Dr. Strange or John Constantine or Zatana pick a fight with me I can no sell there stuff, like, to the point of just outright ignoring it generally speaking. Same with anything or one I happen to be touching. But Wonder Woman’s powers come as direct boons form the Greek Gods, so I can’t do that to them. Same with Hercules. And the same thing if Thor or Loki decided to let me have it. )

This is already long so, I will post the most up to date versions of the 2 sheets I have in a pair of subsequent posts.

2

This one is the most recent version of the speeders sheet I could get. This was a newer player to table top games as a concept. In fact, his very first character. Errors in record keeping are why he’s a few points behind the next sheet in point total. The idea is that it’s a Speedster type character like The Flash or Quicksilver.

PL 8

Strength 2, Stamina 2, Agility 4, Dexterity 0, Fighting 4, Intellect 2, Awareness 2, Presence 2

Advantages

All-out Attack, Defensive Attack, Evasion 2, Improved Initiative 3, Instant Up, Interpose, Luck 4, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Takedown, Uncanny Dodge

Skills

Acrobatics 2 (+6), Athletics 8 (+10), Close Combat: ??? 6 (+10), Deception 2 (+4), Expertise: Mechanics 6 (+8), Perception 8 (+10), Technology 1 (+3), Vehicles 3 (+3)

Powers

All Over The Place: Movement 3 (Wall-crawling 2: full speed, Water Walking 1: you sink if you are prone; Limited: Only While Moving)

Beatdown

Air Control: Cone Area Move Object 7 (3 tons; Cone Area: 60 feet cone, DC 17)

Air Cushion: Burst Area Movement 1 (Safe Fall; Affects Others, Burst Area 4: 250 feet radius sphere, DC 11)

Closeline: Strength-based Burst Area Damage 6 (DC 23; Burst Area: 30 feet radius sphere, DC 16, Selective)

Fast Strikes: Strength-based Damage 4 (DC 21; Multiattack, Selective)

Insubstantial: Insubstantial 4 (Incorporeal; Precise)

Vaccum: Concentration Burst Area Affliction 7 (1st degree: Dazed, 2nd degree: Stunned, 3rd degree: Incapacitated, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 17; Burst Area: 30 feet radius sphere, DC 17, Concentration)

Can’t Touch This: Enhanced Trait 16 (Traits: Dodge +8 (+12), Parry +8 (+12))

Cyborg Reinforcement: Protection 2 (+2 Toughness)

Friction Shielding: Immunity 1 (Rare Descriptor: Friction)

Radio Senses: Senses 2 (Radio, Ranged: Radio; Affects Others)

Self Repairing: Regeneration 2 (Every 5 rounds)

Super Speed (Advantages: Improved Initiative 3)

Quickness: Quickness 8 (Linked; Perform routine tasks in -8 time ranks)

Speed: Speed 12 (Linked; Speed: 8000 miles/hour, 16 miles/round)

Offense

Initiative +16

Air Control: Cone Area Move Object 7 (DC 17)

Closeline: Strength-based Burst Area Damage 6 (DC 23)

Fast Strikes: Strength-based Damage 4, +4 (DC 21)

Grab, +4 (DC Spec 12)

Throw, +0 (DC 17)

Unarmed, +4 (DC 17)

Vaccum: Concentration Burst Area Affliction 7 (DC Fort 17)

Complications

  • Phobia: Crippling Fear of Geese -

  • Addiction: Alcoholic -

Languages

Native Language

Defense

Dodge 12/4, Parry 12/4, Fortitude 8, Toughness 4, Will 8

Power Points

Abilities 36 + Powers 77 + Advantages 14 + Skills 18 (36 ranks) + Defenses 12 = 157

3

This one was my character. It’s start point is “What if Spiderman was in the DC universe, and was less of a science and tech genius but had more common sense?”. This is where he is at the end of the last campaign.

PL 8

Strength 8, Stamina 5, Agility 4, Dexterity 0, Fighting 0, Intellect 2, Awareness 2, Presence 0

Advantages
All-out Attack, Attractive, Custom to move people clear. 2, Equipment 2, Evasion 2, Fast Grab, Favored Environment: Urban., Improved Aim, Improved Disarm, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Improved Initiative 2, Instant Up, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Set-up, Skill Mastery: Deception, Skill Mastery: Expertise: Electric Work., Skill Mastery: Perception, Takedown 2, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge

Skills
Acrobatics 6 (+10), Close Combat: ??? 8 (+8), Deception 16 (+16), Expertise: Electric Work. 4 (+6), Insight 4 (+6), Investigation 8 (+10), Perception 4 (+16/+6), Persuasion 4 (+4), Ranged Combat: ??? 8 (+8), Stealth 8 (+12)

Powers
Spider Sense
Enhanced Trait: Enhanced Trait 1 (Linked; Advantages: Skill Mastery; Limited: Danger Sense Only.)
Enhanced Trait: Enhanced Trait 6 (Linked; Traits: Perception +10 (+16), Advantages: Uncanny Dodge; Limited: Danger Sense Only)
Senses: Senses 1 (Linked; Danger Sense: Mental 6th Sense)
Wall Crawling: Movement 2 (Wall-crawling 2: full speed)
Web Blasters (Removable)
Web Swinging: Flight 6 (Speed: 120 miles/hour, 1800 feet/round; Limited: Must end movement in contact with a solid object of some kind, including via a webline. , Noticeable: Makes a distinctive sound and smell and leaves behind trail of silk. , Quirk: Leaves behind a trail of chemical white silk that dissentigrates after 1 hour)
Web Tricks
Spinning Webs, Any Size: Shapeable Area Create 8 (Volume: 250 cft., DC 18; Shapeable Area: 30 cft., DC 18; Noticeable: Makes distinctive sound and smell and leaves behind white silk. , Quirk: Leaves behind distinctive white silk. )
Web Bindings: Cumulative Affliction 8 (1st degree: Hindered and Vulnerable, 2nd degree: Defenseless and Immobilized, Resisted by: Resisted by Dodge, overcome by Slight of Hand or Damage, DC 18; Cumulative, Extra Condition, Increased Range: ranged; Limited Degree, Noticeable: Distinctive sound and smell and leaves behind a trail of silk., Quirk: Leaves behind white silk that dissentigrates after 1 hour)
Web In Your Eye: Cumulative Affliction 8 (1st degree: Impaired, 2nd degree: Disabled, 3rd degree: Unaware, Resisted by: Fortitude, DC 18; Cumulative, Increased Range: ranged; Limited: Only Effects Vision, Noticeable: Makes distinct sound and smell, and leaves behind white silk. , Quirk: Leaves behind distinctive silk that dissolves after exactly 1 hour)
Web Lines: Move Object 8 (6 tons; Improvised Weapon 8; Noticeable: Makes distinctive sound and smell and leaves behind white silk, Quirk: Leaves behind distinctive white silk that dissolves after 1 hour)

Equipment
Cell Phone (Smartphone), Commlink, Flash Goggles, Flashlight, Gas Mask, Mini-tracer, Multi-tool, Nanotech compatibility. 0, Rebreather

Offense
Initiative +12
Grab, +0 (DC Spec 18)
Throw, +0 (DC 23)
Unarmed, +0 (DC 23)
Web Bindings: Cumulative Affliction 8, +0 (DC Fort/Will 18)
Web In Your Eye: Cumulative Affliction 8, +0 (DC Fort 18)
Web Lines: Move Object 8, +0 (DC 26)

Complications
Enemy: I have developed a pattern going up against people and it ending with them having a Vendetta against me. Often these people have powers, a track record of killing people of there own, or high tech bullshit.
Identity: Normal Mild Mannered Electrician By Day, Superhero By Night. And if that ever became public knowledge, that would be very bad for me and those I care about.
Motivation: Responsibility: Those To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Required.
Power Loss: The Nanotech my powers are derived from, while resistant to EMP’s, hasn’t had all the issues worked out yet. My physical health can vastly impact there effectiveness. And damage too the physical protrusions they make can shut the related options off till they have time to self repair.
Power Loss: I have a couple of enemy’s so far that have worked out exploitable flaws for the chemical silk and danger sense they can exploit.
Relationship: I have friends and relatives whom I must keep safe, they do not know I’m Zebra Spider.
Reputation: Cat Grant is absolutely out to get and destroy any good name I could have if she can. Really holding a grudge about her car getting wrecked when I was stopping a Metahuman on a Rampage.

Languages
Native Language

Defense
Dodge 11, Parry 11, Fortitude 8, Toughness 5, Will 8

Power Points
Abilities 42 + Powers 32 + Advantages 26 + Skills 35 (70 ranks) + Defenses 27 = 162

4

So these are a couple of the one’s were looking to get moved over. I am hoping someone here will be able to help with that. Thanks. :slight_smile:

5

Here is is some guidance to help you:

Your Speedster’s Speed of 12 (8000 MPH) would be the equivalent to Speed 13 in Ascendant.
Your Air Control of 7 (3 tons) would be the equivalent of 8 SPs in Ascendant.

In general, add +1 to the M&M score to get the Power score for Ascendant.

For stats, add +3 to the M&M score to get the Attribute score for Ascendant.

Strength 2 = MIG 5
Agility 4 = AGI 7
Dexterity 0 = VAL 3
Intellect 2 = INS 5
Presence 2 = CHA 5

For Skills, add the rank of the Skill to the character’s ability score
Close Combat +6 = Martial Arts 9 (VAL 3 + 6)
Can’t Touch This +8 = Combat Sense 15 (AGI 7 + 8)

6

Gotcha. That has proven helpful. Thank you. :slight_smile:

One other question:

One of the things I’m looking to build into is having my not-spiderman character pic up immunity to magic (so, the ability to no sell it outright when a Dr. Strange or Zatanna or Merlin type or a person who’s got totally not ex-caliber or something shows and starts trying to throw lighting or magic missiles at him or turn him into a newt or teleport him to the shadow realm, or in the case of totally not ex-caliber, tries to cut up my webs, the building behind me, and me, in one swing.)

In Mutants and Masterminds I’d have bought Immunity 10 common descriptor, and then maybe a 1 point feature to include my webs and people I make contact with as part of that.

How would I do the equivalent in Ascendant? (I realize Magic is not part of the Ascendant Lore right now but given the cosmic power stuff and the existence of mentalists who have broad powers and fairly broad element powers, I figure figuring out such an immunity would be useful anyway for that. And knowing how to do it for magic just means if people want to run the rules with homebrew/house rules or run it in a different setting, the information is out there on how to do it. )

7

Ascendant doesn’t offer a lot of “no sell” for various reasons, mostly because it presumes everything exists on a continuum.

For “no-sell immunity” you would want to create a new, custom (house) power. Here’s how.

Mathematically, to be able to completely no-sell a Mega Power Attack of a given SP, you need to have Invulnerability+10.

For instance, if I armed with a Sniper Rifle (Blast 8) and do a Mega-Power Attack, I can deal damage with an EV of 12. A Red result on EV12 is 1,024. Stopping 1,024 damage without having to Roll requires 18 SPs of Invulnerability.

Resistance costs 5 + 0.5 CP/SP per damage type. We want to be totally immune to all damage up to the SPs, full stop. So we’ll add 10 SPs into the base cost, increasing it from 5 to 10 CPs. Then we’ll say 0.5 CP per SP.

Let’s say we are using the PLs in Ascendant, where the highest power anyone has on any attack is a hydrogen bomb with 28 SPs. Therefore we need 28 SPs, so 14 CPs. So for 24 CPs, we could claim Invulnerability to one damage type. Let’s round it up to 25 CPs since it even protects against theoretical multi-attacking hydrogen bombs and so on.

8

Ok, Following So Far, but question. What happens if I want to also no-sell a none damage effect? For example, let’s say the Wizard decides instead of throwing magic death lighting at me, instead he’s going to transform me into a newt, or teleport me into the heart of an active volcano since blasting me is not working?

How would I achieve that additional effect of being able to ignore such thing from a specific descriptor (magic in this case. Meaning that if while I can no sell it if oh, say, Clarion The Witch Boy is casting spells, but not if Doctor Octopus has a weird tech-tech ray gun he built to accomplish the same effects.)

9

What you are trying to accomplish is, again, not really something addressed in the Ascendant rules, so again you’d be house-ruling.

You could take a look at Mindscreen, which reduces the range at which Mental Powers operate. If you imagined a power called “Magic screen” which reduces the range at which “magic” operates, and purchased enough that no one on Earth could be in range of you, then that’d be effectively immunity.

10

Ok. Clarification: If I reworked Mindscreen into Magic Screen with my GM, would I also need to buy the Invulnerability as well, or would the modified mind screen power by presumed defaults, make that redundant? Or is that just something the GM would have to decide?

11

Mind Screen wouldn’t protect you from an area of effect attack that didn’t target you.

In terms of cost and so on, it’s hard to answer this stuff in a vacuum.

Mind Screen is expensive because it prevents you from being seen by psychic powers and so on. Would your Immunity to magic make you impossible to scry? Are you immune to helpful magic too? Can you turn it off? All of that would have to factor in.

It would also depend on how rare magic is. If 1% of people in the setting use magic, then “Magic-only Mind Screen” might have a variable cost of 0.5 instead of 4. If everybody uses magic, then it’s just Mind Screen.

It’s made more complex because magic isn’t a defined category of powers in the game, even!

12

Yeah, I have a feeling at some point a supplement or expansion will come out to do magicy stuff so people who want to be Thor or Wonder Woman or King Arthur or Dr. Strange or Harry Dresden can do that.

So, my intention was when I was writing the fluff for it, that it targets just the character and stuff the character is in direct contact with at that moment, and only against harmful/malicious magics. So, a magic user wouldn’t be able to just go “Well, I’ll just teleport you into a volcano or turn you into a newt or mind control you into throwing yourself head first off the empire state building or turn the ground under you into acid or your clothing into thousands of highly aggressive venomous live snakes if I can’t blast you.” And similarly couldn’t do to that someone I was grabbing to rescue or the like if I made contact before there spell went off. Also stops them from using magic to just turn themselves into a dragon and eating him or something.

Helpful magic (like if the party has a Dr. Strange sort who’s healing us from near lethal wounds or teleporting us too were the adventure will take place/back to home base form the adventure.) should not have a hiccup.

Scrying would intent on why the Scryer is doing things.

I’d also intended due to setting dynamics to make a clear difference between Magic vs. Gods/Certain Flavors of mythical creatures. A wizard turning himself into a dragon doesn’t work, but an actual Dragon can still rip me limb from limb if it get’s a good hold on me.

Dr. Strange can’t do all kinds of horrible things as listed above, but Loki Viking God of Lies, Mischief and Magic can, cause he’s a Deity. Some jerk that found Generic Magic Hammer with Lighting can’t wast me with lighting, but, Thor or Zeus, being Deity’s, could, and would not even be slowed down by this particular defensive option of the characters.