Tommy's Marvel SAGA Conversions (Homemade, not Official)

[TommyBrownell]

Hey guys...I'll use this thread for my tinkering with BASH and the posting of my Marvel SAGA PCs and NPCs. I may get around to doing some official Marvel conversions (and independent write-ups as I get more comfortable with the system), but if I do so, those will appear on my blog as opposed to this board, just to protect BASHMAN. If most of these guys seem like a bizarre mix of powers...well...that's because almost every one of them was originally a Marvel FASERIP character turned SAGA character, now turning BASH.

First up is a repost from RPG.net, the potato chip eating robotic member of The Sideliners named TALOS, formerly MARK and previously Mini-Magnet. He's addicted to TV, and met his fellow teammates when they were drafted by Nick Fury for a time-traveling mission that only he remembers, thanks to his circuits. He basically just badgered the rest of the team into joining forces until they agreed.

Name: Talos (18 stats, 21 powers, 40 Total)
Real Name: MARK
Mental Malfunction: Protect Humans

Brawn: 5
Agility: 1
Mind: 3

Soak: 8
Defense: 1
Mental Defense: 3

Power:
Armor 3

Metal Mastery MultiPower 3 (7)
Magnetic Scrambling: Daze (Close Range) 2 (3) (+2)
Metal Bonds: Immobilization (Close Range) 2 (3) (+1)
Magnetic Waves: Telekinesis (limit: Metal only) 4 (+1)

Shockwave: Push (Medium Burst) (4)

Shrinking 3

Super Jump (2)

Skills:
Stealth/Hiding
Humanities/Pop Culture
Science/Genetics
Technology/Time Machines

Advantages:
Photographic Memory
Unliving

Disadvantages:
Freak
Outsider

I believe those points are correct. His Magnetic Control goes beyond just basic TK, as he's been known to do some crazy fine manipulation with metal, as well as stun beings (living and mechanical) and use metal to bind people. He has a few more esoteric tricks, but I think the Power Stunt rules suit those nicely. He is addicted to pop culture, but does not fully understand it (and human interactions in general, though he tries REALLY hard)...and he cannot begin to pass for human.

Though quick with a joke, he does get serious when it comes time to fight, and he's fiercely loyal to the only other Sideliner who has been on the team the entire time, Mindstorm.

Notes: Using BASHMAN's thoughts on Mastery, I rejiggered Talos and gave him two of his three powers for a cheaper total, as they are very "thematic" of Magnetic powers (Telekinesis and Immobilization). Daze isn't the most common, so I left that one as a 2 pt power.

[TommyBrownell]

Name: Mindstorm (8 stats, 25 powers, 33 total)
Real Name: Mike Stevens
Mental Malfunction: Save the world...someone has to.

Brawn: 0
Agility: 2
Mind: 2

Soak: 1
Defense: 2
Mental Defense: 2

Power:
Astral Projection (4)

Electrical Mastery Multipower 3 (6)
Boost (Brawn, powered by electricity) 3 (+2)
Damage Field (Area: Medium Burst, single use) 5 (+1)

Immunity (Electricity) 1

Paired Weapons (2)
Knives or chains

Swift Strike (2)

Telekinesis Multipower 2 (4)
Force Field 2 (+1)
Force Bolt: Special Attack (Variable) 1 (2) (+1)

Weather Mastery Multipower 3 (6)
Lightning Bolt: Special Attack (Variable) 2 (3) (+1)
Soaring Winds: Flight (Affects Others) 2 (3) (+1)
Powerful Gust: Push (Small Arc) 2 (3) (+1)

Skills:
Athletics/Acrobatics
Perform/Juggling
Occultism/Astral Dimensions
Streetwise/Gut

Advantages:
Versatile

Disadvantages:
Social Stigma (Mutant)

Originally wearing an all-white costume and calling himself Cueball, Mike Stevens later adopted the identity of Oddball (due to his strange assortment of powers) before settling on Mindstorm as he grew into his role as a hero. Mindstorm is a surprisingly skilled hand to hand fighter, though he generally uses his powers in fights. Raised in a circus, Mindstorm left that life after discovering his stepfather was behind some nefarious activities. His life as a superhero has proven rocky, nearly being killed by Juggernaut, having his mind blasted into oblivion by an Elder God and having his body hijacked by The Shadow King, but he's also fended off a cadre of Mojoverse assassins all by his lonesome (after his teammates fell) and leveled Castle Doom. Not too shabby.

Again, this is a pretty straight conversion, but darn it if he doesn't feel awfully weak for the point totals, and I'm thinking its the over-reliance on Multipowers or something. Can't place my finger on it, anyway, but this conversion does not do Mindstorm justice. I still don't like how weak his attacks come out, but the addition of Mind to them will help. I might consider adding the Boost (Mind, for Ranged attacks only) trick I've seen BASHMAN use. I dumped Resistance for Immunity, which is much closer to the character anyway. Plus, the changes in Multipower rules based off of Mastery save him some points...looking much better. In a 40 point game, he's got Hero Points plus Versatile to play around with.

[TommyBrownell]

Name: Pulsar (10 pts stats, 6 pts powers, 16 pts total)
Real Name: Jim Flanagan
Mental Malfunction: Motivated Do-Gooder.

Brawn: 2
Agility: 1
Mind: 2

Soak: 2
Defense: 1
Mental Defense: 2

Power:
Jet Boots: Flight (Fragile Gadget) 4 (3)

Wrist Blasters: Special Attack (Mid-Range, 2x damage, Fragile Gadget) 4 (3)

Skills:
Athletics/Acrobatics
Pilot/Evasion
Security/Surveillance
Technology/Repair

Advantages:
Leadership

Disadvantages:
Public ID

When the Sideliners formed, it was Pulsar (then Revenger) who grew into a leadership role. In almost a Captain America-esque way, he was a "norm" among supers...armed with only wrist blasters and jet boots, Pulsar was a hero by day and security guard by night. Not even bothering to conceal his identity, Pulsar embraced the role of hero even as it nearly got him killed by a Brood-Infected Army General. The Captain Universe Omnipower saved him, and Pulsar returned to help his teammates fend off The Brood, rebuilding Talos from only a head in the process. The power faded and he rejoined the team, but was sidelined once more when Legionnaire (under a hypnotic suggestion) rigged Pulsar's wrist blasters and jet boots to explode while he was wearing them. Pulsar recovered and found an old Jack O'Lantern outfit and took on that identity for a time, before retiring from superheroics to become a New York police officer, where he still occasionally crosses paths with his old teammates.

[TommyBrownell]

Again, if anyone sees a mistake I have made in point calculations or the like, feel free to point them out, please.

[Lindharin]

Hi Tommy,

I don't think you have your points for Multipowers correct. Here's one example:

Weather Mastery Multipower 3 (9)
Special Attack (electrical bolt, Variable) 2 (3)
Flight (Affects Others) 2 (3)
Push (Small Arc) 2 (3)

The way multipowers work is you can only use one power at a time, so he couldn't fly and shoot lightning together if they are in that multipower. But in exchange for that limitation, you only pay for the most expensive single power, plus either +1 point for any other powers in the same category or +2 points for any other powers in different categories. The additional powers can each have up to the point cost of the primary power.

So if I'm reading that multipower correctly, each power in it has a cost of 3 points. So it doesn't matter which one is the "primary" power, but let's choose Special Attack as the primary. So the whole multipower costs 3 points (for Special Attack) + 1 for Push (also a Combat power) and + 2 for Flight (a Movement power). So the total cost of the multipower is 6, not 9. Notice that you have two combat powers, so it was better to choose one of them as the primary power; if you choose Flight as primary then each of the other two would be +2 points instead since neither is a movement power.

(That is by the book, as I understand it. I'm sort of house ruling it that if you have multiple powers from the same additional category you only pay the +2 once, then the remaining powers from that category are back to +1. Basically I'm treating it as +1 point per extra power, with a single extra +1 for including each additional category.)

Also, the Resistance power is only 1 point for 2 resistances, so if you had Resistance 3 the character would be resistant to 6 damage types.

Does that make sense?

[TommyBrownell]

Actually, Weather Mastery is the Primary Power in that. The rest of them are non in the same category...Weather Mastery is 3 points, with 3 additional powers at +2 each, for a total of 9. The (3) after each is showing that I hit the 3 points in each case (such as 2 levels of a power with a 1 point Enhancement).

I'll definitely have to look at Resistance again and rejigger things.

I know he gets screwed on points doing it that way, but thematically that's the way it should be, as the extra powers are all spawned from his Weather Mastery.

[Lindharin]

Ah, gotcha! Sorry about that! I thought the first line was just the "label" of the multipower (like the way you did Jet Boots on a separate line from Flight for Pulsar), and not a power in its own right.

You may be pleased to know that Bashman has stated that the Mastery power (although technically in a different category) doesn't count extra if the other powers are clearly related. You'll have to search up his post for the exact wording, but basically if you had:

Special Attack 3 (Lightning)
Weather Mastery 3

That would be just 4 points because the special attack and weather mastery are thematically appropriate.

However, my recollection was that in the specific case being discussed at the time, the special attack was the primary power, and that the Mastery power was listed as an alternate, so it was the Mastery that cost just +1 instead of +2.

I'm not sure how he'd rule it if the Mastery is the primary power. Would all thematically appropriate alternate powers be just +1 regardless of category, or only the first one? You could try to find his post and see what you think.

On a related subject, Bashman has also stated that the new book he's working on will have "power suites", groups of thematically related powers, and I believe he's said that when any of those powers are in multipowers they will be just +1 point per slot regardless of category. So that seems to be the direction he's heading.

[TommyBrownell]

Ahhhh...very nice. Even if I had to switch it so that the "Mastery" power was "under" another, that would still help a bit. Especially as you mentioned before, by making Special Attack primary to save on points with Push and Mastery.

Thanks for the tips.

[BASHMAN]

Tom- something I decided to do is for Multi-Powers, Mastery counts as the same category as the other powers, as long as those other powers follow the Theme. So if you have Weather Mastery in a multi-power with Lightning Bolt (Special Attack), Freezing Hail (Immobilize), Gale Force Wind (Push), Fog (Confusion) then that is okay- they'd just cost 1 each.

This is something that Awesome Powers will be addressing, and I think will also be mentioned in BAM! #5 which will have an article on "To the Rescue: Controllers"

[TommyBrownell]

Oooh, okay...theme trumps all. Gotcha.

I'll rejigger Mindstorm a bit, then.

Thanks again!

[TommyBrownell]

Just a bump for those interested, as I have rejiggered both Talos and Mindstorm.

If TK doesn't require Range being purchased (like the description suggests) then his TK actually winds up being a bit stronger, I think (since he has the metal limitation).

[TommyBrownell]

Name: Legionnaire (16 pts stats, +4 Weakness, 18 pts powers, 30 total)
Real Name: Don Marz
Mental Malfunction: Atone for his failings

Brawn: 2
Agility: 4
Mind: 2

Soak: 5
Defense: 4
Mental Defense: 2

Power:
Electrisuit:
Armor 3
Claws: Special Attack (+1 hit, +2 damage) 3
Electrical Mastery 4
Immunity (Electricity) 1
Scan 4
Combat Program Multipower: Weapon Technique - Claws (+2 hit) 2 (3)
Paired Weapons (+1)


Skills:
Drive/Control
Stealth/Palming & Planting Items
Commerce/Finance
Technology/Invent

Advantages:
Resources

Disadvantages:
Normal (Agility 2)

Weakness:
Removal of neural uplink system (Devastating Damaging Weakness)

Originally the embarrassingly named Electriclaw, Don Marz was a tech geek who decided to make a supersuit that protected him, but also linked into his body and uploaded fighting skills and enhanced his agility. Fashioning himself as a grim avenger of the night, Marz lightened up once he joined the Sideliners. Taking on the new codename Legionnaire, Marz joined Talos, Mindstorm and Pulsar in combating evil in all its forms. However, two events had a catastrophic effect on his heroic career, the first being his encounter with Kang's Future Sideliners...the future Legionnaire, wearing a tank-like suit of armor, mortally wounded Marz, severely damaging his nervous system due to his neural uplink system. Marz can now no longer remove the core system for fear of death. The second event ended his heroic career altogether, and that was when he was brainwashed by the villainous The Voice, of Red Skull's skeleton crew, into sabotaging and nearly killing Pulsar.

Marz retired from active heroism and has returned to work full-time with his growing company New Frontiers Inc., though he still privately funds The Sideliners.

And that's the four original Sideliners. Up next, the first replacement member, who joined the team after Pulsar was presumed dead battling The Brood.

[Lindharin]

Looks cool, Tommy!

By the rules-as-written, I don't think you can have Armor 4. However, it really isn't an issue, since you could buy it legally as Armor 3 plus Boost Brawn (soak only) 1 for the same cost. My understanding is that the total of Armor + Brawn isn't supposed to be higher than x8, which comes from a limit of 5 Brawn (whether boosted or normal) and 3 Armor. In this case, your soak doesn't reach x8 anyway, and in my opinion just writing it as Armor 4 is cleaner/easier to understand at a glance.

[TommyBrownell]

Thanks for the catch, again! I tweaked the Armor down...I have a "formula" I use for eyeballing SAGA to BASH stats, and I didn't actually LOOK at Armor when I did that one.

[BASHMAN]

Yeah- I wanted the "Cap" for soak to be less than the "Cap" for Damage, for the reason that otherwise combats would drag too long. I don't want there to be a "Grind" problem!