Basic Action Super Heroes!

I wondered whether the Ghost Form and Teleport Powers are too cheap. I find both very strong as Ghost Form makes a character virtually invulnerable to all normal threats. Teleport, while VERY strong regardng short jumps is likely to be unbalancing when jumping long range and not limit it somehow. We have a character with a super vehicle that can teleport. The reult is, that all adverntures around travel become obsolete.

Some thoughts:
Either make Ghost Form pt cost 1/3/5 instead od 1/2/3 OR leave the point cost as is and have characters with Ghost Form 2 or 3 pick three materials they cannot pass through and that can harm them also in Ghost Form. Players could then decrease the number of those materials to one (minimum) through buying those vulnerabilities away for 1 pt/vulnerability.

I also suggest to make teleport short range only. Long range teleport can then be bought as an enhancement. That makes teleport a bit more expensive, especially on lower levels.

I agree with you to a point, but I find GM fiat plays a big part here.

With teleportation you can always limit the amount of teleportation that people can take for your game.

ghost form, especially linked with invisibility can be a headache. I think the point cost increase or stipulating 1 material they can't pass through would work.

Of course you could have a villain who can immobilize the teleporter with his mind as well as mind attack your ghost guy. - but players don't seem to like it when you have a villain who's purpose seems to be nullifying their powers...

however, for someone who can't be physically touched due to armour, invisibility or ghost form - do what the best villains do - go for their loved ones! (or personal assets)

Ghost form is also automatically vulnerable to energy. So lasers (and how COMMON they are for super villains to have) hurt them. Energy based force fields stop them. They're not invincible.

But as Narrator, if you want to change it to 1/3/5 point cost, that's totally fair to do.

Likewise, you can choose to limit how much Teleportation you will allow a PC to have in the game. You can even forbid that power to players if you want to, and let NPCs use it (but that may annoy players).

Ghost form is a great power, but it is limited. If you want invulnerability, you have to put up with limited or no contact with the physical world. So you can't affect, lift, or touch things, or attack physically.

Ways to make ghost form a little more tricky for a hero:

- put things in the game that the ghost former HAS to touch. He has to go solid to push the deactivation switch; or pull the old lady from the burning building; or block the bullet from taking out the mayor, etc. Is this screwing the guy with ghost form - A little. Don't do it all the time, just enough to give him the feel of vulnerability. Happens all the time in the comics. And after all, doesn't the player want something exciting to happen. If he ghosts through everything totally invulnerable, where is the fun! So when you do this to the ghost former, you give them a moment of coolness in which they can shine.

- Have the occasional other ghost form rival or villain. Then they can duke it out while the others on the team can't do anything but watch.

- Play the jazz of the ghost form for effect. If Electron is naturally formed of electrical energy, then magnetic things will likely mess him up. Water girl might have trouble moving through absorbent substances such as sand or similar [or sponges, but you probably don't want to go there]. Magical Phasing might be blocked by lead, or just by any magical barrier. This is not the same as making the player chose substances that the ghost form does not work on, because you want to do the same thing in reverse. Let the magical phaser slip right through the tech based anti-phase barrier until the builders get it right. Let Electron go desolid and walk right through the arcs of electricity from the faulty power station, even if he doesn't have Immune - Electricity.

For Teleport - I agree that the Concentration distance can be a little long. I allowed my teleporting character to take a limitation on the power to reduce the Concentration distance by a level. She pays one less point, and gets 50 squares of Teleport with a Concentration distance of 'into a nearby state'. She was happy, I was happy.

Thanks for the input. I always think of existing super heroes and tend more to the Marvel Universe there. Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Beast, Spidey, Captain America, ...

Some of their greatest fighters are about helpless against a Ghost Form character.

As for the touching, we have a character with Ghost Form and Telekinesis...

Sunslinger wrote:Thanks for the input. I always think of existing super heroes and tend more to the Marvel Universe there. Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Beast, Spidey, Captain America, ...

Some of their greatest fighters are about helpless against a Ghost Form character.

As for the touching, we have a character with Ghost Form and Telekinesis...

I've played a character with this same combo (Unknown Soldier) a ghost from the American Revolution with amnesia fighting the Axis in WWII.

That is a powerful combo, but a good player knows not to abuse it. For one, fire is your enemy! Also, I added a weakness that he was also vulnerable to Silver and couldn't phase through it (just touching it hurt him).

BASHMAN wrote:For one, fire is your enemy! Also, I added a weakness that he was also vulnerable to Silver and couldn't phase through it (just touching it hurt him).

This is something I am not sure how to rule it. You rule fire energy damage then!?
The silver vulnerability goes a bit into the direction we play it by now: that a Ghost character has to pick 3 materials he cannot pass through and that harm him also in Ghost Form.