How would you build a character in the Superhero games that can change the world?

[Gavinfoxx]

One thing I've noticed that a common theme in many comic books is that, no matter how fantastic the powers of the characters, none of the games really have the heroes remarkably changing the world around them, or proactively trying to improve the world in major, permanent ways. This is a thematic choice, because the source material is almost always 'world outside your window', because that is what sells... but I'm thinking -- how WOULD you build, in your favorite superhero system, someone who can really and profoundly change life for normal people in the setting?

Let's say someone wants to bring about a technological or magical singularity (for example). Say Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition (because there seem to be more powers and more expansions that increase rules to work with, compared to 3rd edition, which seems simplified). How would you stat up someone like that? Someone that can start an exponential increase in general intelligence, or capability, or something like that -- preferably in a way that doesn't cause the extinction of the human race, and involves the whole world becoming a paradise (that is, at the end of the campaign... not immediately, cause the point is that the players DO want to actually play the game!)

[Jay R]

In Champions 5th Edition:

3d6 Aid to Intelligence (30 points). +1 Area Effect, +1 1/4 Megascale (planet), 6 levels on the Time Chart +1 1/2.

Obvious Accessible Independent Focus -3, Concentrate -1/2, One Charge -2, Takes one hour -2.5

30 points, 112 Active Points, 12 points real cost.

This produces an artifact that can be activated for one hour each day, giving all people on the planet roughly +10 INT. The average person is now a super-genius.

Specifically, every fanatic can now create nuclear weapons, the world is in flames, and civilization is destroyed.

There's a reason super-heroes don't try to change the world too fast.

[Fortuna]

I realize that this isn't what you wanted, but I thought it was funny, and an excellent example of why M&M requires careful GM supervision.

Building in Mutants and Masterminds 2e...

We'll assume PL 10, that being the default. Now we want Free Action Perception-Area Boost Anything 10 - that's +2 Action and +1 Area on a base of five power points per rank, boosting every trait of ourselves and everyone we can see as a free action by ten points at a cost of eight points per rank, for a total of eighty points. Slap on ten ranks of Slow Fade and the Total Fade power feat and it lasts for ten years, with no deterioration until the time is up. Everyone we see is now a supergenius, a leader of men, thoughtful beyond measure, strong as an athlete, graceful as a dancer, tough as a bear and highly trained in every skill known to humanity, and wherever we live has been changed utterly.

We can do better.

You know how I said Perception-Area up above? Let's have a little experiment in extending our Perception area. Super-Senses is our friend here, specifically the Extended component of that power which increases a sense's range by a factor of ten. Now we just need a way to perceive through solid matter... enter Detect, another possible form of super-senses. We'll make it Detect Minds (so it'll hit every thinking being within range) and have two ranks for a base range of ten feet. Slap on eight instances of Extended and that's a base range of ten billion feet, or about three million kilometres, for a total cost of ten points (or ninety-one points spent in total). The Earth is only six thousand kilometres or so in radius - our perception, and hence our enhancement, actually encompasses the moon. Everyone on Earth is now a paragon of humanity, with the power and knowledge to do whatever they want.

We can do better.

Let's take a close look at the Transform power. Mental Transform is of particular interest to us - for four points per rank, we can create a whole new personality for our subject. Slap on Perception-Area (+1), extend the duration to Continuous (+1), and buy ten ranks of it for sixty points in total. The entire world becomes our thralls, our puppets, our loyal vassals or our gladiators - and at a thought, we can alter them all over again. We've spent a hundred and fifty one points, one more than we're allowed, but we can make that up (and more to spare) by dropping our ability scores - rendering ourselves incapable of movement scores us twenty points alone, leaving us another nineteen to play with. We can spend those leftovers on the requisite Intelligence to do whatever the hell we want, or...

We can do better. But not much better.

By reducing all of our ability scores down to 1 (don't worry, our Boost will bring them back up to average), we end up with fifty-three spare power points. Taking a minor Drawback (just about anything will do, but let's make it severe vulnerability to disease because we can) gives us another three power points, which is juuuust enough for seven ranks of the most powerful eight-rank form of Variable. With that at our disposal, we can instantly assign thirty-five power points in whatever direction we want to throw them, opening up precognition, telepathy, super-strength, or whatever else we want as options. Our Boost power allows us to take whatever power we grant ourselves to newfound heights, and of course the entire planet remains our mind-slaves.

I don't think we can do much better than that. :smallsmile:

EDIT: For a character who can spark change only gradually, and with difficulty, but eventually resulting in exponential growth... I suggest a summoning power.

Summoning is, by default, a power costing two points per rank. Rendering your summons fanatical to you costs another point per rank. Broadening the type of minion will set us back another two points per rank, but allows us something as broad as Summon Animal. In this case, I'll go with Summon Demons, because then you can have an interesting plot arc about being reviled and getting your summons accepted into the world. Rendering them Heroic characters costs us another one point per rank, and increasing their duration from Sustained to Continuous is one more. That's a total of seven points per rank, so we can take ten ranks for a total of 70 power points (from our starting 150). Stick the Progression feat onto that so that we can make more of them - to really change the world we'll need lots, so let's have nineteen ranks of that for a potential total of 2.5 million. Finally, we don't want to change the world right away, but gradually - so we'll make each one take a full hour, earning us back twelve power points (ten from a flaw, two from a drawback). The power costs us a total of seventy-seven power points. For a finishing touch, add a one-point immunity to sleep (total of seventy-eight power points spent). The end result is that as a hero you have a few minions on hand pretty much all the time, and given time to respond you can design them to match the situation. During downtime you spend sleepless nights conjuring forth those demons you think best-able to serve the world and sending them out to change it, hour by hour, one step at a time...

[Friv]

I would go to my GM and say, "I want to play a game with superpowers, but which also has a rational societal response to them".

Then I would probably take Mutants & Masterminds and play Aberrant with it. ;)

[Gavinfoxx]

So how would we do this in M&M 3e, now that it has a decent enough of books?

How would you do the traditional Singularity / AI / Hard Takeoff scenario?

Bonus points if it is actually a Friendly AI?

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Wonder: Back to your grave, undead thread!