Twilight of Empires

Strength: To simplify bookkeeping, we will use the superheroic rules for Strength, and it only costs 1 END per 10 points used, rather than 5, thus matching up with every other Endurance using ability in the game.

Combat Driving: The skill of operating a small sailing craft in peril-fraught situations.

Combat Levels, DCV: Five point DCV levels may be used with the Dive For Cover maneuver if not otherwise declared.

Combat Piloting: Not available.

Computer Programming: Not available.

Cramming: Levels of Cramming can stack, up to three.

Defense Maneuver: Individual stages may be purchased a la carte. Specifically, IV may be bought before III.

Electronics: Not available.

Fast Draw: Simply having Fast Draw for your ammunition type will allow you to load and fire your ranged weapon as a normal attack action.

Gambling: PCs are not required to purchase specializations to this skill. Should they choose to, it will be considered a combination of “KS: <style> world” and “KS: <style> history”.

Languages: All language skills cost one point. Literacy, assuming the language in question has a character set different from the Common Tongue, does cost a second point. You want to speak foreign languages badly as part of your character shtick? That's a quirk.

Linguist: Not available.

Levels: If purchased in your Niftiness multipower, they must be bought at the 5 point level or higher.

Martial Arts: Everyone is required to spend at least ten points in maneuvers, plus purchase the relevant KS at 11-. I would prefer to see damage increases in your Niftiness Multipower rather than as DCs, but am open to discussion.

Penalty Skill Levels: If purchased in your Niftiness multipower, they must be bought at the 3 point level

Power: Recommended. Primary use will be to generate on-the-fly variations on your powers (ie: Power Stunts) not currently purchased in your multipower.

Science: Not available, for plot reasons.

Fringe Benefit: The only Perk purchasable at campaign start: you may spend one point into Mercenary Guild Membership, and upon GM approval, another into membership in a professional guild.

• Animal Empathy: 8 Points. +4 Presence levels with animals only (-1.5)
• Depth & Slope Awareness: 3 Points. Character is aware of their depth below ground and the grade of the surface they are standing upon. Popular with Dwarves.
• Cast iron Stomach: 3 points. Character can eat things that only marginally qualify as food. Also provides +3 to their CON roll when ingesting substances that they shouldn't.
• Combat Luck, Less Lethal: Nonresistant version of the normal advantage. 4 points per level, provides 3 Pd and 3 Ed, Hardened.
• Duskvision: 3 points, provides +2 vs/ Darkness penalties.
• Enhanced Perception: up to +2 full, +4 in any one sense. This is a full-time talent. This limitation does not apply to abilities bought in your Niftiness multipower.
• Nightvision: like the power. +4 vs/ Darkness penalties.
• Power Awareness: see character creation notes.

Adjustment Powers, General: Unless advantages are taken to extend Drain/Aid duration, it is assumed that an Aid or Transfer that reverses the effect of a Drain or Transfer simply counts as a Heal, and no additional point tracking is required. Consumable stats, such as Stun and Endurance, also qualify.

Change Environment: Just as we have in previous games leveraged the daylights out of the “penalties to characteristic or skill roll” effect, I will allow you to build a change environment that buffs said rolls. One, you will almost certainly want the “selective” advantage. Two, your C.E. can't do both. Three, starting characters cannot buy a buffing C.E. with an inherent duration.

Dispel: Dispel, particularly in the form of curative magics, can be used to undo the effects of a Flash attack. To balance this, only the “Body” rolled on the Dispel applies to the Flash damage.

Duplication: No. Just no.

Extra-Dimensional Movement: Astral and Spirit projection are known abilities, however I currently feel they are not appropriate at campaign start. Time travel is right out.

Extra Limbs: Half ogres can purchase this this: one of their parents did have four arms. Keshanti and capritaurs are not required to purchase this unless the character expects to use some sort of six-limbed martial art style.

FTL: Not available.

Find Weakness: If purchased in the Niftiness multipower, must be taken at the 30 point level, even if by special effect it only applies to a group of effects.

Flash: Upon consideration of our “everyone is Speed 3” campaign, Flash attacks will hereby operate under THIRD Edition Hero system rules: 10 points per die, count body, and that is how long you are flashed in phases, not segments.

Flash Defense: In consideration of the increased cost of Flash attacks, all forms of Flash Defense must take a +1 Advantage “Applies to Third Edition Flash Attacks”. (This will be easier to apply in Hero Designer than trying to double the cost)

Flight: At campaign start not available as a sustainable ability, and certainly not with non-combat multipliers. being able to levitate for a turn or two is acceptable, as is limited flight to move across surfaces incapable of supporting your weight normally. (Superior Lightfoot)

Force Wall: We are using 4th Edition rules for how much wall you get by default. In other words, you get active points divided by 5 hexes of coverage by default, instead of just one. Increased wall size is bought as normal. In short, it should NOT cost more to run a fence across the street than it does to put an umbrella up over the town of NewHaven. In addition, there is no required cost to be able to reshape a force wall: sacrificing one inch of maximum length adds one inch of height tot he wall.

Force Field: Purchase PD and ED with the Costs Endurance limitation.

Gliding: Purchasable up to your ground movement speed max, and no noncombat multipliers. Lightfoot is a valid ability, Legolas.

Healing: My initial thought is to throw out the recast time rules for this power. I will revisit that if the power starts being abusive.
Regeneration is available to lesser trolls and half-trolls, but no faster than the 1 Body per hour level.

Images: Images “only for illumination” gets you light, as per the core rules. +4 PER gets you the equivalent of daylight. To get Sun Light, you need the +1 advantage “Does Body”. Secular mages can accomplish this, though it generally requires the right school. Jewel Light, or true holy light, requires a proper theurgic background, and adds the +1/4 advantage “Stops Teleport”.

Killing Attack: Not available for hand-to-hand or ranged attacks.

Leaping: non-combat multipliers are not allowed at campaign start. This is for thematic reasons.

Life Support, Longevity: Only available at the 1 or 2 point levels, depending on race.

Multiform: Not out of the question, but will require GM consultation and approval. “Werewolf” is a character class, after all.

Regeneration: EXPERIMENTAL Regeneration under 5th edition, is considered a variation on the Healing power, which is a variation on Aid, which seems to the GM to be an unnecessary consolidation of mechanics. Regeneration is now considered its own Alteration power, and costs 5 points per 1 character point recovered per turn, self only. As an alteration power, you may choose advantages to increase the number or variety of stats (or powers) one can recover, to be able to use Regeneration on others, or take limitations to slow the rate of recovery. It is recommended that one purchase a base level equal to one point of whatever characteristic you are recovering (10points for 1 BODY Regeneration, for example). Regeneration does not cost endurance, is considered Persistent, and does not require visible special effects.

Running: non-combat multipliers are not allowed at campaign start. This is for thematic reasons.

Shape Shift: Once again, we are using 4th Edition rules. This means there are three stages of shape shift.

• Stage 1, 10 points: You can turn into a single thing. “I am the world's greatest Richard Nixon impersonator!”
• Stage 2, 20 points: You can turn into a reasonable but limited class of things. “All humanoids”, “All cats”, “All tavern furniture”, “All wall textures”.
• Stage 3, 40 points: You can turn into anything, so long as you stay reasonably close to your own mass and volume. Kim Green can turn into John Green, but probably not John Goodman. I could probably turn into a jaguar, but not a tiger, at least not without some Growth thrown in there).

Shape Shift is a Continuous, Endurance using power. This power is generally assumed to cover normal sense groups. If you wish to mimic Mystique of the Marvel Universe, and be able to turn into any humanoid, but always smell like yourself, that is a -1/4 limitation. Other variations should be discussed with the GM, and may only amount to special effect.

Summon: Preferable to familiars bought as Followers. The Specific Being advantage is not available. To make combat summons marginally viable in our “everyone is SPD 3” campaign, a Summoned entity arrives Stunned, and spends the phase they arrived becoming Unstunned. Default rules require them to spend their next phase doing so, which doesn't really mesh with any of our source material.

Suppress: Suppress, particularly in the form of curative magics, can be used to undo the effects of a Flash attack. To balance this, only the “Body” rolled on the Suppress applies to the Flash damage.

Swinging: non-combat multipliers are not allowed except under very specific special effects and conditions.

Tunneling: non-combat multipliers are not allowed.

Area Of Effect, Selective: Normally, an attack with this advantage requires an OCV vs. DCV roll for each selected target in the area. For an additional +1/4, this requirement is removed, returning the attack to only requiring a simple, single OCV vs. 3 DCV roll. This is intended to speed up and simplify combat.

Autofire: The player may choose to sacrifice a potentially damaging shot for +1 to accuracy. If the player really wants to pay 5x endurance for +4 to hit, the GM isn't going to stop them. Yes, there is an adept down in Asteria the Blackstone Company knows who has an 80 shot Magic Missile spell, famed for sacrificing 60+ shots on accuracy. Looks like a Macross missile swarm coming at you.

Cannot Be Escaped With Teleportation: Also known as Stops Teleportation and (locally) Hardened vs. Teleport. This +1/4 Advantage also stops Clairvoyance, and powers with any level of the Indirect advantage.

Indirect Fire: Not to be confused with the indirect set of advantages. Indirect Fire is a -0 limitation on a ranged, targeted power that affects both the path the power takes, and how range modification penalties apply. In the real world, one would assume that this limitation is applied to mortars, catapults, trebuchets, and most howitzer style field artillery pieces.
A power with this limitation is assumed to travel in an upward arc, reaching an altitude of half the distance to be traveled at the midpoint of the path, then coming down on the target location. An Indirect Fire power is considered 0 OCV for a distance equal to it's active points divided by five. After that point, the power is considered at full OCV, and in addition, it only accumulates range modifier penalties at the normal distances.
For an additional -1/4 Limitation, the attack may require double the vertical space to reach the target. This limitation may be taken up to two times (at which point, most powers become “outdoors only”).
Example: Vilkas the Archer has an 8d6 EB Fire Arrow attack he wishes to declare Indirect Fire. This is a 40 Active Point power, so for 40/5=8“ the attack is considered 0 OCV. After that point, it uses his normal 7 OCV, and accumulates its first -2 Range Modifier at a range of 16”.
Example: Sgt.Sven Benson-Svenson has a light mortar. This is a 4d6 RKA Explosion, with 90 active points. It is 0 OCV against any target within 18“, but full OCV and without range penalties out to 32”, at which point it is only -2 to hit.
A power with this limitation may take an additional -1/2 penalty which prevents it from being targeted at all on any location in the 0 OCV zone. A trebuchet, for example, cannot attack a foe directly before it, barring an exotic misfire that turns it into an expensive and complicated flail.

Megascale: With convincing, the GM will allow on a sensory power.

Increased Maximum Range: Not advised.

Transdimensional: Not genre appropriate.

Activation Roll: Not available for combat simplification.

Charges: Not available for combat simplification.

Focus: Stock focus limitations are not allowed in your Niftiness multipower. Variable Obvious Accessible Focus (-1/2) is allowed for abilities that you can only use with a particular type of weapon, tool, or component.

Independent: Not allowed.

Only In Heroic Identity: Not allowed.

Requires A Skill Roll: Not available for combat simplification.

See character creation notes, but be prepared to justify your five point “other” disadvantage to the GM.

Standard Effect: We are adjusting the Standard Effect rules for die rolls to be more generous. +1 remains a result of 1. On a half die, the result is 2. On a full dies, the result is either 3 or 3.5, depending on what makes the final numbers look nicer or be more campaign useful.