Chris Rutkowsky on "The Games the Thing" Podcast

[BASHMAN]

I was on "The Game's The Thing" with Ron & Veronica, talking about BASH! and Superheroes as a genre in general. Hope you get a chance to listen.

[Lindharin]

Just listened to it, great job Bashman!

[AslanC]

I gave it a listen.

Very nice I look forward to our interview

[BASHMAN]

Yes, you should PM me so we can set up a date & time.

[AslanC]

Done

[Renny]

Enjoyed the show as always and great to hear BASH being covered in such depth. Nice one.

[Shadowchaser]

Bash, can you elaborate on that 'Awesome Powers Book' you were talking about on the show? Is there any chance of that coming out in the coming months before Gen-Con?

Also, will you be at Gen-con this year?

Just picked up BASH today. Liking it very much. I find the Hero Point system much more useful and intuitive than ICONs. I'd like to have a random character generator to go along with the system for those 'pick-up' game nights where we don't have the right players to run our normal M&M game.

[Lindharin]

I don't have the time to do it myself right now, but I don't think it would be too hard to make a random character setup for Bash. Something like:

Pick the number of points (Street Level = 25, etc.)

For all rolls, use 2d6 and re-roll on doubles like normal for Bash.

Use this chart for rolling your stats, and roll once for each power to determine how many ranks you have in it (assuming they come in a 1-5 range; for powers that come in 1-3 ranks, halve it and round up):
3-5 = 1
6-7 = 2
8-9 = 3
10-11 = 4
12+ = 5

Roll for power category:
3-5 = Intense Training
6 = Mental Powers
7 = Perception Powers
8-9 = Combat Powers
10 = Movement Powers
11-12 = Bio-Manipulation Powers
13+ = Mastery Powers
(I haven't really played around with how the percentages come out when doubles give re-rolls, so that chart might need to be tweaked, it's just a gut instinct.)

You'd need a chart for each of the seven power categories.

Then roll for each stat, and as many powers as you want. Keep in mind that if you choose to stop rolling before you've spent all the points allowed you will end up with spare hero points, but if you keep adding powers and the randomly generated ranks puts you over the point cap you'll have setbacks...

[Shadowchaser]

Oh, sure, I've whipped up the odd chart or two in my time. I'm always interested to see what the designer comes up with, though. Specially since he made it sound like the book would come with more than just random generation rules.

It also sounded like there would be a section with 'pregen' power arrangements. I could see things like 'Elemental Control: Fire' sold as a pre-packaged Multi-Power or something(hope I'm getting the terms right), showing you how many points per rank to build a Human Torch-like character at different power levels, without having to put all the pieces together yourself.

Not that this system is hard to use (I'm loving the simplicity), I'm just curious to see what else the designer has in store, since he mentioned it pretty early on in the podcast.

[BASHMAN]

Bash, can you elaborate on that 'Awesome Powers Book' you were talking about on the show? Is there any chance of that coming out in the coming months before Gen-Con?

Also, will you be at Gen-con this year?

Just picked up BASH today. Liking it very much. I find the Hero Point system much more useful and intuitive than ICONs. I'd like to have a random character generator to go along with the system for those 'pick-up' game nights where we don't have the right players to run our normal M&M game.

Sadly, it will not be ready before GenCon.

I am not sure if I am going to GenCon yet. I haven't signed up or anything yet, but if BASH! UE gets nominated for an ENnie then I'll probably go on the off-chance we win. I have some friends who have a booth there that I could potentially share with them.

I'm glad you are liking BASH! For now, what I do to run pick-up games is just use the Archetypes in the back of the book and let people tweak them a bit. We're playing in 10 minutes.

However, I will keep people up to speed how Awesome Powers is coming along. I can say this- you get random "types" of powers called "suites". These are essentially a theme that your random powers follow. So you won't likely end up with ecclectic things like Fire Projection, Immunity Vacuum, and Fish Control as your powers. Each suite is divided up into 3 categories: Offensive, Defensive, and Utility. Powers from the same Suite/Category can always be shared in a Multi-Power.

Awesome Powers will have lots of "specific" powers, vs. the "build" method in BASH UE. They will be build using the guidelines of BASH! UE, though, and will explain how they were built by UE rules. There will also be some truly brand-new powers- and for those, it will say what category it belongs in using the UE categories.

[gryfn]

that sounds great will there be a way to pick a power level and get a random character or will power level be random as well?
i love the idea of a theme , that sets it apart and above the other random supers generators i have seen .

[BASHMAN]

You pick a power level- but you may end up with a 23 point character in a Street Level game- you you may end up with a 27 point guy, etc. The characters will be "around" the points set by the tier of play.

[Shadowchaser]

You pick a power level- but you may end up with a 23 point character in a Street Level game- you you may end up with a 27 point guy, etc. The characters will be "around" the points set by the tier of play.

This sounds like a great product, Bash. May we assume there will also be a larger selection of powers/enhancements/limitations?

[BASHMAN]

Yes- you should definitely assume that.

[MrJupiter]

This sounds like a great product, Bash. May we assume there will also be a larger selection of powers/enhancements/limitations?

Yes- you should definitely assume that.

So glad to hear it. I can’t wait for its release. Thanks, BASHMAN, for keeping us posted!