Each attack in Metahumans Rising matters. Like in the comics that inspired the game, often three or four hits from an opponent can knock out a character. What if we want to push that though? Comics are rife with villains who’s attacks can atomize regular people, even kill heroes in a single blow. (I’m looking at you Uncanny X-Men #142… sorry Wolvie.) Bringing that level of threat to the game table can be a daunting task. From my experiences, few games outside the horror genre consider one hit kill style attacks. It’s time to explore how to create these jaw dropping blows in a way that feels true to the genre, fair to players, fun to use, and adds to the overall narrative.
It’s time to talk about the art of overwhelming force.
Part 1: What is Overwhelming Force?
As gamers it can be easy to fall into the mindset of optimization. It’s one of the things we tried to break away from when creating Metahumans Rising; designing a framework that allowed players to make character driven choices in creation without penalty, and reward them for character driven actions in gameplay.
At the same time we wanted to encompass the escalating power levels seen in comics in a fun, scalable way. In the Meeting with Equal Force section of the GM’s Chapter (Pg. 147) the article discussed a 3:1 ratio between Power Levels, meaning, it takes approximately three characters from a given Power Level to face off against a character from the next tier up. This allows GMs to have one stronger villain along with their throngs of henchmen (thanks to Mobs) face off against a team of four or five heroes.
It is possible to design an untouchable monstrosity that wipes the battlefield. However, we’re not looking to “win.” Our goal, and hopefully the goal of the GM, is to craft interesting stories and engaging challenges. (We’ll address those monstrosities along the way, but not in the way you might expect.) Overwhelming force is not about being a well rounded character that can take on any challenge, it’s about delivering an attack that can destroy buildings and obliterate anything in their path. In a game, like Metahumans Rising, it’s also about doing so in a way that the group can prevail, even if one hit could take out a hero.
Part 2: The Mechanics of One Hit Kills or the Big Hit
In the adventure A Valentine in Red & Black we introduce two high powered villains for the climax, the Queen in Red and Modred, the Hell Knight. The Queen has a low damage attack that is hard for most characters to defend, and bolsters her already impressive regeneration. Mordred on the other hand has a low accuracy, high damage attack. So high in fact that if it lands, the hero targeted will have to have Evasion, Impervious, or Phased to avoid being knocked out in a single hit. (Well, four hits narratively, as it is a combo, but there’s only one Action and one roll involved.)
Favored Attack: Relentless Assault 17 (Mental 15 + KotR 10 + Hell Knight 15 + Clarent 12 + Occult 15 + (S) Combo 10 + (S) Heavy Blow 10 – Maneuver Penalties 70) Dice 5 Range Close Damage 30/30/30/30 Notes Hits 4 Times. Lingering Half Damage (After Armor) for 6 Turns.
Mordred’s Relentless Assault is truly devastating and if a hero doesn’t have a means to mitigate the Damage, a single blow could spell the end. However, how likely is that blow to land? Diving deeper into the numbers the final Attack Value will be between 22 – 47. (That’s an average Roll of 34.50 and a standard deviation of ~4, but more on this later.) They have a -70 Penalty to Attacks, -30 from a 4-Hit Combo, and -40 from Heavy Blows. If we were going for that unstoppable monstrosity, Modred’s attack could have just as easily have been:
Favored Attack: Unstoppable Strike 67 (Mental 15 + KotR 10 + Hell Knight 15 + Clarent 12 + Occult 15 +(S) Heavy Blow 10 – Maneuver Penalties 10) Dice 5 Range Close Damage 28 Notes Lingering Half Damage (After Armor) for 6 Turns.
By tweaking the Attack slightly, removing the combo and three Heavy Blows, Mordred’s Attack’s range jumps to 73 – 97. This is effectively unavoidable for a Classic hero, and still has enough punch to have them checking for Consciousness and Injuries after a single strike. Alternatively, Mordred could have been written with a 2-Hit Combo instead.
Favored Attack: Unstoppable Assault 67 (Mental 15 + KotR 10 + Hell Knight 15 + Clarent 12 + Occult 15 + (S) Combo 10 + (S) Heavy Blow 10 – Maneuver Penalties 20) Dice 5 Range Close Damage 30/27 Notes Hits 2 Times. Lingering Half Damage (After Armor) for 6 Turns.
[Sidebar: Damage from Heavy Blow, or rolling 6s is only applied once per instance in a Combo or Rapid Action. This is why Mordred’s Damage drops to 27 on the second hit in the Unstoppable Assault, and is not 39/39/39/39 in his Relentless Assault.]
In this version of his Attack, we lose none of the Value on the roll, and deliver not just a shockingly powerful hit, but a follow up almost as powerful. Let’s pull back the curtain for a brief detour and dig deeper into the underlying mechanics a bit further.
While fitting for a High Powered game, it’s almost assuredly way too deadly due to its accuracy for Classic heroes. To understand why, here is a breakdown of the Values of Attacks and Defense at the Classic Power level.
Using the starting Arrays, a Classic hero with a Full Role for Offense or Defense in their Power will have a Value of 24. That’s a Parent Attribute of 12 and a Power of 12. This means, with no other modifiers, two characters of Classic Power Level will always hit each other, unless one takes an Active Defense, at which point the chance to hit becomes 50/50,as both characters are now rolling 3d6 with the higher roll succeeding. (This also makes Partial Successes on Attacks much more likely than may be readily obvious, but that’s a conversation for a different article.) Characters do not exist in a vacuum though, and can vary greatly within a given Power Level.
The Expected Attack and Defense Ranges for Classic Heroes:
- Low: Base Value: > 12 Expected Dice: 2
- Below Average: Base Value: 12 – 18 Expected Dice: 3
- Average: Base Value: 18 – 30 Expected Dice: 3
- Above Average: Base Value: 30 – 36 Expected Dice: 3 – 4
- High: Base Value: 36 – 48 Expected Dice: 3 – 4
- Extreme: Base Value: 48 + Expected Dice: 4 – 5
Note: GMs and players don’t typically need this level of detail. While broken builds can happen in Metahumans Rising, or virtually any game, the system does a good job of balancing itself. Push in the extreme down one path and the character becomes lopsided in ways that can be exploited. That’s not to say it shouldn’t be allowed, only that one should be aware when this type of build comes up. A good rule of thumb might be, characters with five or more characteristics for a Roll may need some extra attention. They may be unintentionally lopsided, especially if those characteristics have a higher value. Discussion or review needed.
The Values above factor in Base Attributes, Powers, Specialties, and Talents, but not Penalties. An Attack with a Value of 30 and a 10 point Maneuver Penalty would still be considered in the high range.
Going back to Mordred’s Relentless Assault, the final Attack Value will, on average, fall between 30 – 39 (that’s 34.5 the ~4 standard deviation in play.) Comparing this to the Classic Heroes expected average Defense Value, if they don’t take an Active Defense, the blow will land. With an Active Defense, we are back roughly the 50/50 range, with a slight edge going to Mordred. This becomes a lot more manageable even to Heroes with an above average defense. (Although, I would recommend still taking that Active Defense and not chancing a low roll.)
Mordred’s Relentless Assault, having a raw Value of 87 before Penalties does fall into the Extreme Range for High Powered characters, which starts at 60. An average High Powered Defense is between 23 – 37. This coupled with an above average Defense, for his power level, makes him a tough, but not unbeatable foe. GMs need to be mindful, as this might lead people to see the character as overpowered or an unreasonable challenge, and if he used the Unstoppable Strike or Assault above, he might be. However, to paraphrase, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. As written, fighting Mordred requires caution and a bit more strategy, but with thought, he can be beat.
The character of Mordred was developed to create a fun challenge for Classic Power Level characters. This is reflected in the Recommended Power Level at the start of the one shot. If this was a character in a High Powered campaign, the Unstoppable Attacks would be more appropriate as other characters would be more capable of coping with this level of destruction.
By trading accuracy for damage, Mordred remains a disturbingly powerful threat, but something that Classic heroes can face without immediately becoming undone by overwhelming force. Although, again, it may take some strategy. Things like Perception Talent, or the Exploding Dice Willpower Feature can bolster Defense making his attacks easier to defend. The question is, how do players know when to use these things? Here narrative becomes key.
Part 3: Matching Narrative With Mechanics
Description in role-playing games should mean a lot. From a GM’s perspective, leaving out a detail may cloud people’s understanding of the scene or lead to bad decisions. As players, describing an action before deciding what is the optimal roll allows people to think creatively and can lead to stronger group interaction.
For example, telling the group your hero is going to pick up a manhole cover and wing it at the villain lets everyone assess how they can interact with the scene. If the team has a telekinetic, they might give the manhole cover some extra punch, or a crafty tactician to tell you where to aim. This kind of interaction increases an attack’s Base Value through the Assisting Action. (See Assisting, Pg. 88.) It also allows one to amend things, maybe the added tactical advice leads to making the throw a Stagger or Trip Attack. Maybe the telekinetic push is used to add Heavy Blow, options that might not have been considered before describing the action and engaging the table may not seem like logical choices or obvious additions. Narrating a big hit works in a similar fashion.
Players take narrative queues from the GM. Returning to Mordred, there is a large difference between describing thins as: Mordred attacks, versus dragging his giant broadsword across the ground sparks fly before Mordred hefts with supernatural power before charging with murderous force.
While the later is a mouthful, trimming down to: Mordred strikes with supernatural power and murderous force probably get the point across. Other ways to express this might include more abstracted mechanics. Mordred moves with the speed of an aging fighter, slow, but not so slow that an untrained foe could avoid it, should his blade connect it could easily hew limbs or sever a body in two. Only the most impervious armors could stand against his might. Here the GM expresses the slower nature of the attack, but continues to lean into the deadliness even hinting at the need for the Impervious Armor Advancement. .
Strong narration continues to inform the scene as players having received these details now have the ability to try and tough it out, or take an action to avoid and / or mitigate the danger. Of course, this assumes the hero has an Action available to them, or enough Willpower for a Surprising Action. Otherwise, it’s more like seeing the train before it hits. Unless…
Even if the hero being targeted can’t avoid the attack, that doesn’t mean nothing can be done. As in the earlier manhole cover throw example, other heroes may play a critical part in how the attack is resolved. The Defend Others or Intervening Action (Pg. 110) allow other heroes to either interpose themselves, or do something to prevent the attack from happening. GMs should not be afraid to prompt reminders or ask if anyone can help a potentially doomed teammate. This kind of teamwork can help to define the group, and inspire more cooperative play.
[Sidebar 2: The bonus from Assisting and the goal of Interrupting Actions are designed to encourage cooperation. Players can take inspiration from things like the Fastball Special, Ant-Man Riding on Hawkeye’s arrowhead, or Mr. Fantastic slingshotting the Thing. All of these are examples of an Assist, and there’s no counting how many times one hero took the hit for another. Heroes that develop signature Assists can take Specialties for these tactics, not to mention the Tactics Talent itself along with Technical Operations which both give bonuses to these types of actions.]
If used sparingly, bringing a villain with overwhelming force can be a great show stopper. Using the strong narrative keys prompts the group and can remind them to act on their agency in the scene. GMs feel out how players react to certain descriptions. Listen for how they react. Build up an assortment of narrative tools for when it’s time to face a villain who can deliver one hit kills so that your players understand just how dangerous the foe they now face. Good narration can lead to stronger player interaction, battles that feel as epic in scale as they look on paper.
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