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Home arrow ORE Superheroes arrow Rules arrow Custom Miracle: Super HQ [Dice Pool]
Custom Miracle: Super HQ [Dice Pool] PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ryan Denison   
Sunday, 13 May 2007

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I've been working on adapting some four-color inspired Super HQ rules for WT.  What spurred me to it was rereading the old Marvel Super Heroes Advanced Set.  I remember making bases in that game was pretty fun:  "I want a communications room!"  *rolls a Resource FEAT*  "Dammit, I guess I'll just can't afford it."  *sigh*.  Good times. 

Custom Miracle: Super HQ [Dice Pool]

Cost with Attacks, Defends, Robust and Useful Outside of Combat is 20/40/80.  This cost scheme accounts for the Focus, Hard to Replace, and Immobile Flaws, as well as a number of Willpower Battery levels equal to the number of dice of Super HQ. 

Baxter BuildingEverybody has to live somewhere, but with this miracle your house is more than just a home.  The Avengers have their mansion, Superman has his Fortress of Solitude, and the Fantastic Four have Four Freedoms Plaza.  Even the bad guys cannot resist buying old amusement parks, missile silos, and uncharted islands.

Like other foci created during character creation, your HQ (and how you can afford to maintain it) is something for backstory to take care of.  It is generally assumed that the HQ is self supporting or owned outright by the character.  A large enough office building, for example, probably generates enough rental income to keep you from worrying about how to pay the lease on your HQ, but it won’t line your pockets with cash.  If you’ve taken up residence in a manor of some kind perhaps your wealthy relatives put enough money in a trust to keep paying the property taxes at the end of the year. 

Multiple characters may pool their points in order to start the game with a swank pad.  In fact, that’s the only way most characters are likely to be able to afford the best HQs.  This has the added benefit of cementing the group with a story detailing how they came to live in their new digs!

Super HQ with Attacks: Your base has intrusion countermeasures or natural features that can cause damage to intruders.  You can also attach miracles with the Attacks quality to your HQ.
Super HQ with Defends: Your base has average defenses.  If you have the Attacks quality you must roll and gobble to defend against intrusion, otherwise roll once and use that roll to defend against all attempts to enter.  Each intrusion attempt causes another defense roll.  You can also attach other defensive powers to your HQ.
Super HQ with Robust: HQs with the Robust quality are assumed to have some automatic way of utilizing attached powers (which must also be Robust).  Without this quality, all defensive or attack systems in the HQ must be monitored and operated by someone.
Super HQ with Useful Outside of Combat: All bases must have the Useful Outside of Combat quality.  This quality represents the base’s capacity as a home, accounts for various mundane items that you use when you aren’t out fighting crime; kitchen appliances, assorted furniture, home electronics, etc. 

The Super HQ Dice Pool
The types of dice you have in your Super HQ miracle dictate what types of dice you can have in powers attached to your HQ.  You will also roll your Super HQ dice pool to protect your HQ from intruders.  Miracles attached to your base may have any number of regular dice, but each power may only have as many special dice as you have in Super HQ, and the dice pool can never exceed 10 dice. 

Example: If I have 3d+2hd+1wd in Super HQ, any power I buy may have up to 2hd and 1wd, but no more.  I may buy any number of regular dice, however.  The best I can get with this setup is 7d+2hd+1wd, for a total of 10 dice.  Not too shabby. 


When you purchase Hard Dice in Super HQ, you must assign each die to Attack or Defense.  Once the Hard Dice are assigned, they can only be used for that purpose.

Example: With 3d+2hd+1wd in Super HQ, I must choose where to assign my Hard Dice.  I can divide them up, assigning one each to Attacks and Defends, or both to Attacks, or both to Defends.  Once assigned, those Hard Dice are only used when rolling for their assigned task.


The composition of you Super HQ pool also gives a general idea of your HQ’s contents. Special dice in Super HQ indicate that you have access to better stuff.  The GM decides if items fall under Super HQ, but Wiggle Dice should allow quite a range of freedom.  If the GM is on the fence about an item, he/she can set a difficulty and have the player roll the Super HQ pool.

  • Regular Dice    Regular stuff of moderate quality.
  • Hard Dice        Expensive mundane stuff.  Framed art,antiques,
                           Olympic sized swimming pool, home gymnasium.
  • Wiggle Dice     Insanely Expensive and/or exotic stuff. Danger rooms,
                           super-computers, powerful communications
                           monitoring equipment complete with large view screens, etc.

Attacking and Defending with your HQ Pool
Each round you can choose whether to attack or defend with your Super HQ pool, or any attached miracle that could be involved in the defense.  If you choose to defend, the intruder will not be damaged, but may be foiled in their attempt to gain access to your lair.  If you attack there is a chance the intruder will be harmed.  If you have Hard Dice in your Super HQ pool, you must choose whether or not to use them.

Hard Dice in Attacks are serious trouble for intruders; they represent deadly traps, hazardous weather conditions, savage local wildlife, or trigger happy guards.  Hard Dice in Defense represent high fences or walls, regular checkpoints, limited entrances, etc.

Wiggle Dice represent more finely tuned or exotic anti-personnel weapons and defenses; electrified grappling nets disguised as vegetation, hovering robot cameras, biometric scanners, and trained guard animals would fit in this category.  “Fear my savage weasels! They shall rip your flesh!”

Super HQ with Attacks:  Super HQ does width in Shock and Killing.
Super HQ with Attacks and Defends:  Super HQ does width in Shock.

Before you get all excited about the prospect of turning your HQ into a death trap, remember this; when Spider-Man broke into the Baxter Building looking to join the Fantastic Four in Amazing Spider-Man #1, Reed Richards didn’t respond with a deadly nerve gas trap. If he had, the Amazing Spider-Man wouldn’t have made it to issue #2.

The Basic HQ

A super HQ begins with some flaws and a built in miracle:
Extras and Flaws:
Focus (-1/2/4)
Hard to Replace (-1/2/4)
Immobile (-3/6/12)


On the Grid [Willpower Battery]
Extra: External Source [Electricity] (x2): Recharges 1 point/hour.
Flaw: Attached to Super HQ (-1/2/4), Focus [Generator] (-1/2/4),

Each level of Super HQ grants one Level of Willpower Battery.  This Willpower Battery fuels all powers attached to the Super HQ.  The Willpower Battery can use 1 point per level per turn.  If it runs out, all powers attached to the HQ will fail.

If you decide that your base runs on some other form of energy, simply change the recharge rate as outlined on p.116 of the Wild Talents rulebook.

EXTRAS AND FLAWS FOR SUPER HQs

Size: Size matters when you’re talking about your headquarters.

    Size       Cost      Example                   Hit               Wound Boxes      Armor
                                                             
Locations     per Location  
  • Tiny        -1/2/4    1 BR Apartment               3                     3                      2
  • Small       —         2 BR Apartment               4                     4                      3
                              3 BR Apartment             
                              Cottage (2 rooms)             
                              Small House (4 room)
                              Storefront (4 room)             
  • Mid-sized +1/2/4  Brownstone                   5                      5                     3
                              Large House (12 room)             
                              Medium House (8 room)             
                              Office (3 room)             
                              Office Floor (12 room)             
                              Office Suite (6 room)             
                              Small Factory             
                              Small Warehouse             
  • Large     +2/4/8    2 Office Floors (24 room)    10                 10                  5
                              Medium Factory             
                              Medium Warehouse             
                              Office Building, 4 floors             
                              Small Manor (18 room)             
  • Deluxe     +3/6/12 Large Factory                    20                 15                5
                               Large Manor (24 room)             
                               Large Warehouse             
                               Mansion (30+ room)
                              Office Building, 8 floors
                              Office Building, 12 floors
                              Office Building, 20 floors
                              Office Building, 30+ floors             
  • Massive    [x2]     This level of HQ represents   80                 25                6
                               an enormous building complex,
                               island, or small European country
                               (a la Doctor Doom).  An HQ of
                               this size is going to warrant a good
                               bit of background info.                                                  

*The examples on this table were cribbed from the MSH Advanced set.

Sturdier Construction: To simulate better building materials, purchase miracles such as Heavy Armor and Extra Tough. 

Location, Location, Location: Sometimes there is a reason that you got such a great deal on your Super HQ, other times you go out of your way to find the perfect locale.

   Locale         Cost       Description
  • Bad Area    -2/4/8     Don’t park your car outside or it might get stripped. In broad
                                   daylight.  With people watching.  Attempted break-ins are
                                   frequent and vandalism is rampant.  On the other hand, on
                                   any given night you can scrounge up some Willpower just by
                                   patrolling your block.
  • Average      —          Your HQ is in an average area where the type of building
                                    you’ve chosen might be located.
  • Secluded     +1/2/4   You are out in the boonies and it’s troublesome for others to
                                    find your or get to your location.  Maybe you’re in the middle
                                    of a swampy area, or surrounded by miles of forest.  You’re
                                    still only 20 miles or so from the nearest town or village.
  • Remote      +2/4/8    People seldom go to your HQ’s location unless it’s part of their
                                    job or they are extremely adventurous.  It’s very far from
                                    civilization, and is also likely protected by some kind of harsh
                                    natural environment.  Perhaps it’s in the arctic wastes, under
                                    the sea, on the top of a mountain, or in orbit around the
                                    Earth.
  • Inaccessible  [x2]      Your HQ is somewhere that regular folks can’t go; they might
                                    not even know it exists! Examples of such places include the
                                    Negative Zone, the Dark Dimension, or the realm of Gaia.
                                    You have some way to enter and exit the location, and it is
                                    possible for you to guide others there.  The location and
                                    method of entrance to your base is up to you, but that is the
                                    entrance you must use each time you travel there unless you
                                    have a miracle that allows you to reach the destination in
                                    some other manner.

Staff: A larger base is going to need some extra folks around to perform mundane tasks, and even in a mid-sized base it’s nice to have someone around to clean up after you.  Staff members are those individuals who are regularly in the HQ and are under your direct employ.

    Staff                             Cost         Notes
  • Service Staff (Basic)          +1/2/4      Cooks, Maids, Butlers, Groundskeepers
  • Service Staff (Improved)    +2/4/8      Physicians, Scientists, Lawyers, Tax
                                                          accountants (5d stat+skill)
  • Security Staff (Basic)         +2/4/8       Rent-A-Cops, Mall Security (4d stat+skill)
  • Security Staff (Improved)   +3/6/12     Professional Security (5d stat+skill)

The number of staff you begin with is based on the size of your HQ.  Simply divvy up the numbers between the types of staff you have.

HQ Size       # of Staff
  • Tiny               —
  • Small              2
  • Mid Sized        4
  • Large             8
  • Huge             16
  • Deluxe           32
  • Massive          100+

ATTACHING MIRACLES TO YOUR BASE
Miracles attached to your HQ must be able to attach as per the regular attaching rules.  If attached Dice Pool powers have the Robust quality they are automated, otherwise the source of the power must be manned by you or members of your staff. 

Powers attached to the HQ will always have the Focus (-1/2/4) and Attached [Super HQ] (-1/2/4) flaws.  There is also another custom extra available for powers attached to Super HQs:

Ubiquitous (+2/4/8): A power with this extra can target (or be accessed) from any location in your base or on the grounds.  Miracles without the Ubiquitous extra are considered to work in one room or general area of the base.

Almost any flaw would be appropriate for powers you want to attach to the HQ.  Just be sure to check with your GM to figure out how a particular power might make sense in the context of your HQ.

Comments
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Haas - Robust     | 66.31.27.94 | 2007-06-15 22:21:27
If the individual powers require Robust to be automatic, having it as an automator for the entire HQ seems redundant--characters must spend twice to benefit once. I would suggest instead that Robust would be what renders the HQ self-supporting, providing for things like lease payment, property taxes, or what-have-you automatically. In the absence of Robust, characters must maintain the HQ out-of-pocket, with their own money and effort.
Ryan Denison     | 67.185.250.1 | 2007-06-15 22:38:24
That's good idea! The only problem I see is that if a player wants to have to maintain his base, he cannot have any automated powers attached to it becasue the HQ would not have the Robust quality. That's why the Robust quality is worded the way it is. You could let a player take a flaw that represents having to pay out of pocket to support the HQ though. I'd call it Out of Pocket -2/4/8
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

 
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