Some BASH! UE rules questions

[daddystabz]

I'm an M&M 3e/DC Adventures player/GM reading through BASH! UE based on the amazing feedback it has been getting. I bought the book recently and am going through it now but I have a few questions I hope you all can assist me with please.

1) Bonuses/penalties: Are there bonuses/penalties you can both get that you add/subtract BEFORE the multiplier and some you add/subtract AFTER the multiplier? It seems this is the difference between a dice bonus/penalty and result bonus/penalty. I'm trying to get it straight in my mind when you would receive either.

2) I was a bit confused by the buying skills example on pg 7 in the skill multiplier first paragraph of the book. In one example it gives it states that if you had an Agility of 3 and invested all three slots in Stealth, your multiplier could be x5. Wouldn't it be x6 and you would have one free specialty you get automatically?

3) I've read that some people like myself that prefer a bit more granularity than just a scale of 1-5 provides have been using a 10 pt scale. How have you all been able to make this work and still be able to stay within the power scale guidelines (25 pts, 40 pts, 60 pts), etc? I want to be able to model the subtle differences between characters the way I've always done in M&M. For ex: The subtle difference in strength between Superman and someone like Thor.

More to come I'm sure and thanks in advance!

[Saker]

1) Bonuses/penalties: Are there bonuses/penalties you can both get that you add/subtract BEFORE the multiplier and some you add/subtract AFTER the multiplier? It seems this is the difference between a dice bonus/penalty and result bonus/penalty. I'm trying to get it straight in my mind when you would receive either.

OK The math for generic results is (2d6 +A) xB +C = Result
A = Dice bonus or penalties
B = Die Multipliers
C = Result bonus or penalties
Read carefully, because they make a big difference.

2) I was a bit confused by the buying skills example on pg 7 in the skill multiplier first paragraph of the book. In one example it gives it states that if you had an Agility of 3 and invested all three slots in Stealth, your multiplier could be x5. Wouldn't it be x6 and you would have one free specialty you get automatically?

The first skill slot trains Stealth at your full Agility score of 3 and gives you a specialty for rerolls like Hiding or Prowling. Additional skill slots can either increase the roll, so two more slots would give you x5. OR additional slots can give you extra specialty rerolls at the same multiplier. Remember untrained skill default is one (1) die multiplier penalty; FYI the advantage Jack of all Trades reduces the penalty to a one (1) dice penalty.

3) I've read that some people like myself that prefer a bit more granularity than just a scale of 1-5 provides have been using a 10 pt scale. How have you all been able to make this work and still be able to stay within the power scale guidelines (25 pts, 40 pts, 60 pts), etc? I want to be able to model the subtle differences between characters the way I've always done in M&M. For ex: The subtle difference in strength between Superman and someone like Thor.

Sort of. We use Heightened Ability which gives a +3 Result Bonus on an Ability score roll for 1 character point. Therefore, the maximum human potential (e.g. Capt. America) has Brawn and Agility at 2+3 paying 5 character points for each ability: 4 points for the 2 base and another 1 for the Heightened Ability.

More to come I'm sure and thanks in advance!

No problem. We all went through this.

cheers

[Dragonfly]

3) I've read that some people like myself that prefer a bit more granularity than just a scale of 1-5 provides have been using a 10 pt scale. How have you all been able to make this work and still be able to stay within the power scale guidelines (25 pts, 40 pts, 60 pts), etc? I want to be able to model the subtle differences between characters the way I've always done in M&M. For ex: The subtle difference in strength between Superman and someone like Thor.

Sort of. We use Heightened Ability which gives a +3 Result Bonus on an Ability score roll for 1 character point. Therefore, the maximum human potential (e.g. Capt. America) has Brawn and Agility at 2+3 paying 5 character points for each ability: 4 points for the 2 base and another 1 for the Heightened Ability.

No problem. We all went through this.

cheers

What Saker said!

This is an example of how I, personally, break it down. I'll use Brawn:

Brawn
x1 Invisible Woman
x1+3 Cyclops
x2 Daredevil
x2+3 Captain America
x3 Beast
x3+3 Spider-Man
x4 Iron-Man
x4+3 Thing
x5 Thor
x5+3 Hulk

A few things to note:

1) These are raw Statistics. Damage and Soak, in particular, tend to be more granular that this, even without Heightened. They range from x1 - x10 (in the case of Damage) and x1 - x8 (in the case of Soak).

2) As an aside - I would never build a traditional "brick" type that delivers damage based solely on his Brawn. I'd buy a Special Attack to augment that attack, or maybe Weapon Technique (Unarmed). A Hulk or Superman build that does x5 (or x5+3) damage is a little lame (unless, maybe, we are talking about 1938 Superman, who might take a few punches to break through a steel door).

3) That +3 Result Bonus can make a HUGE difference. I've seen it in action enough to know that it often has more than a trivial effect.

Best,

Dragonfly

[daddystabz]

Thank you all so much! This game seems to have wonderful community and BASHMAN is utterly fantastic as well.

I think I understand things a bit better now. When you put all 3 slots into Stealth with an Agility of 3, the first slot gets you Stealth 3. Then each of the 2 additional slots you buy would be another 1 each, for a total of 5.

Your Brawn scale is EXACTLY how I'd place them as well, Dragonfly. Do you have an example like that for DC characters as well? I'm a HUGE Batman fan and I almost think it is easier to model his gadget for every occasion ability he seems to have better in this game than I was able to in M&M.

[BASHMAN]

Well, thanks! I was going to chime in here, but it looks like you got all the questions answered.

[daddystabz]

Can anyone please explain to me how running into some bad guys to try to slam them works exactly please?

Also, how do power rolls work? I just read the powers chapter and didn't see it explained there.

[BASHMAN]

Power rolls means you roll 2d6 times the power's level. This isn't something you have to do very often- most powers that utilize this will explain that part.


Slams work like this. Super Train is slamming into the Brick Wall.

Super Train has a Brawn of 4. He also has Super Running, and just moved 20 squares before impacting his target (see momentum rules), bringing his Slam to x6.

The Brick wall has 2 choices here. He can try to get out of the way or he can hold his ground.

If he holds his ground, the Brick Wall rolls soak as normal. Whoever rolls lower takes the difference (or their roll, whichever is lower) in damage; No Soak.

If he tries to dodge, he rolls Defense (don't include Deflect in this). If he wins, he takes no damage. If he loses, he gets clipped for the difference in damage. Again, no soak.

So if Super Train rolls 66 and Brick Wall rolls 50, Brick Wall is taking 16 damage, which cannot be soaked. Does that make sense?