RE: [BNW] Glory Days Questions

["Steve Crow" <crow_steve@hotmail.com>]

>>*heh* Not sure which type of adventure setting _would_ suit
>>Translators.  "Hi, my campaign involves you sitting around at HQ
>>translating and doing development stuff - what package do you want
>>to take?"  Translator, Gadgeteer, Ace (for those chauffeurs),
>>and...that's about it.  Very much a package that was
>>genre-appropriate, but not one any self-respecting PC that wants to
>>_do_ something would take.
>
>I think it ends up being that while they aren't tagged as such, some
>of the packages will just automatically be NPCs.  I thought that when
>I first read the Hounds and the Boosters, and even teh Snuffers.  I
>mean, really, you are playing a superhero game and the power package
>you pick allows you to make other folks tougher?  Hmm...I think that
>would get old fast.  For me anyways.  I can see many teams wanting
>Boosters on their side, but they'd rarely be PCs.  Even given the
>fact that in BNW your powers are less important to the char concept
>in many ways than say your skills or background, it still doesn't
>make some packages PC material.  I even told all my players which
>ones I would reccomend against b/c of that fact.
>

I think they have their use as PCs...but it depends on what kind of campaign 
you're running. If I had, say, a Defiance team that was trying to track down 
rogue Deltas and find new ones, a Hunter would be fairly useful.

That, and there's nothing that says your Booster can't be doing something 
after he's "boosted" his fellow Delta.  Like, say, whip out a gun and fire a 
few AP rounds into that Defender.  :)

Although as you say powers are less important, I know my players (before we 
folded, and as they have commented since) tend to think of Deltas in 
super-heroic terms. While it is true that, say, your Joe-Average off the 
streets could take down most Deltas with a couple of well-placed shots, that 
also means that your less-powerful PC Deltas can take down a more powerful 
Delta as well.  Your Hacker, say, can with a decent gun and some AP rounds 
actually take down a more powerful Delta.  They don't have to just sit 
around and watch the battles around them.

>I think Glory Days just has too many that seem lower powered.  I
>admit that I got the book more for tha packages (and for the
>background info) than the campaign setting, since I don't ever plan
>to run it in WW2....but there just seem to be few that would work
>well in the modern day campaign (for a PC).
>

Once you overlook the location-specific range of packages, I actually 
thought that the GD packages were in general were _more_ powerful on average 
than in previous books. There's nothing to rival a Charger or a Bomber or 
Goliath, but at least most of them have _some_ kind of combat application, 
as well as other uses as well. Jungler and Dunemaster (and maybe Wereshark) 
are pretty much useless outside their locale.  That leaves us with 7 
packages.  Ace is about on a par with other skill-boosters, although a bit 
less combat-oriented.  Translator is useless.  That leaves us with 5 pretty 
decent mid-range (or slightly higher) effectiveness Power Packages that 
would work modern-day.

(Maybe we should work out a numerical 1-10 ranking system for powers so that 
we can make such comparisons on a book-by-book comparison?  Lets see, with 
Blaster at 10 and Translator at 1...  ;) )

>I note that no one has addressed my concerns regarding the
>bookkeeping aspect of the Translator, but in conjunction with other
>comments, I can't imagine it being a really interesting one to play
>in a general campaign.  It would have to be one designed around
>needing a Translator or most of the time he's as useful as the
>Dunemaster would be in Crescent City.  "Ok, Tongues, you taunt the
>villian in as many languages as you can, while I blast him!"  One
>high on espionage might work well, however--for a DP campaign working
>outside the US, frex.  But even still...
>

As I noted, I would agree that the Translator seems to be the most 
NPC-oriented of the Power Packages to date, managing to beat out Hacker.

>Jennifer
>
>The White Crow


---

Steve Crow

"Worm Can Opener Extraordinare"

Check out my website at:  http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Stargate/4991/

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.