Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - Chargen Info

[jameson (ST)]

Drawback Modifiers

All PCs are assumed to have full human features, that includes bipedal stance, hands with opposable thumbs, and full speech. I'm going to assume that all PCs will have no human looks however until and unless somebody decides that they want to look human (usually its the primates that do this ...)

the following drawbacks apply if you wish to trade away your human features:

• Hands: Partial (2 points, common, minor) – the character’s thumb is not opposable, much like a chimpanzee or monkey. Rough manual dexterity relates a –2 penalty to tasks requiring manual dexterity and/or a solid grip including the use of hand weapons and firearms.
• Hands: None (4 points, very common, moderate) – the character is limited to a paw with out articulated fingers, a hoof or the like. You cannot pick up or grasp objects.
• Speech: Partial (2 points, very common, minor) – Your speech is guttural or you lack the ability to form certain sounds properly. Parrots have natural Partial speech.
• Speech: None (4 points, very common, moderate) – You are unable to speak human words and are limited only to the range of normal animal sounds for your type.
• Biped: Partial (2 point, uncommon, moderate) – Much like a bear, you can stand and fight upright, speed is 1/3 normal on two legs, running, jumping kicking etc is not possible.
• Biped: None (3 points, uncommon, major) – You are unable to walk on two legs or stand upright without support.
• Human Looks: Partial (1 point, uncommon, minor) – the character’s features are closer to human, snouts would be shorts, limbs in closer to human proportion, and coloration closer to human norms. Features the provide power (like horns, armor, and claws) would still give the character away but in poor lighting/visibility the character may pass for human. -2 on social interaction rolls as appropriate
• Human Looks: None (2 points, Uncommon, moderate) –the character looks like a humanoid animal, much like the wolfman or cartoon anthropomorphic animals. Legs may still be digitgrade or cloven hoofed (or whatever) despite bipedal movement. Hands may not have four fingers, skin will be natural color and fur or feathers will be present as appropriate. Short of wearing a trench coat and a large hat in a dark alley the character cannot pass for human. -4 on social interaction rolls as appropriate

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c360/theplourde/TMNT/featurescopy.jpg

[jameson (ST)]

On the Origin of PCs

18 years ago there was an explosion in the skies above NY, something infected a wide swath of animals in the area, most died, those that didn't all turned out to be pregnant females that eventually gave birth before dying. The infant animals were mostly horribly deformed and destroyed (or studied) by the authorities. The PCs come from the smaller segment of the births that were viable but transformed with greater intelligence and humanoid features

In theory this should allow for some PCs to be raised in secret by kind humans or to be feral/wild or even to be raised within a research company/university

[jameson (ST)]

Animal Powers/Abilities

• Power level is looking to be PL6
• Powers of course should be limited to the abilities of your chosen animal
• All powers require the Innate Power feat (1 PP) as they are natural abilities of your PCs and not some weird super power or such.
• Powers that are not Instant duration need to be permanent (-1 PP/lvl Flaw), you cannot stop gaining protection from a turtle shell any more than you can stop being 1000 pounds (if a large creature), 3 feet tall if a small mouse, etc.
• If using Shrinking to be a small mutant you cannot take the "normal strength" extra.
• For anybody with a venomous animal the effects of the venom (paralysis, pains, etc) should be made as a power that has a power limit that requires your strike power (bite with fangs for example) to do damage in order to work. You need to break the skin to deliver the poison/venom. Some exceptions may be made.
• I'll approve Attack and Defense limit trade offs with each character on an as needed basis. Generally I'm inclined to limit those trades to 50% of the limit
• For those familiar with the Palladium RPG assume that you have full Speech, Biped, Hands, and Looks and are normal human size. You can adjust your size up/down with Growth/Shrinking (adding Innate and Permanent) and if you want to have less than full looks, speech, biped, or hands that can be done with drawbacks. I'll try to work up a standardized point return for those soon
• Further for those who know the old RPG, I am nixing the idea of Animal Psionics out of the gate, I never liked them and they always felt out of theme to me.

[jameson (ST)]

Abandonment

Should a PC stop posting, after 7 days they will fade into the background and I will assume they add no meaningful skill use or other mechanical benefit; if, after 30 days of inactivity, a player continues to be inactive, I'll write them out of the game IN MY OWN WAY. All Abandoned PCs will be come ST owned meat puppets NPCs. If you know you will be out for more than a couple of days let all of us know in Table Talk, this will offset the timetables above according to when you expect to return.

Should a character die, the player may remake another at 90% of total PP. This is to encourage "smart play." Not metagaming, but the character who checks doors before opening them, and knows when to flee from Satan is engaging in smart play. Should someone decide that they want to retire their character and remake it, they can remake it at 80% of total PP. This may not be an issue, but it has happened before.

[jameson (ST)]

Spending Experience/Additional Power Points:

Spending PP can only done during the window set between Chapters (I'll give you a specific date). PP can only raise attributes and skills & powers that have been used in previous chapters OR that you expressly tell me you are devoting downtime to practicing (i.e. maybe Arts doesn't come up in game enough to use it regularly).

Raising any trait (attributes, skills, existing powers, ranked feats) takes time. Each week of downtime can allocate up to 5 PP to existing traits. In game expenditures are not going to be allowed; no instant power ups before combat or a skill roll.

New Powers, Skills, & Feats will take 1 week of downtime per 2 PP spent.