These rules have really helped my campaign a lot.  They have been playtested to death and have been in use for up to two years in some cases.

Soak Rule

First off Mega Stamina provides it's rating to both lethal and bashing soak. Normal stamina still provides a lesser bonus to lethal soak but Mega Stamina provides the same bonus for both instead of half for lethal.

Second, Lethal damage beyond Incapacitated is applied as Aggravated damage. Even the luckiest PC has an off day and this rule goes a long way to increasing survivability without decreasing the nastiness of combat.

Enhancements

A character cannot have more Enhancements than the rating of his Mega Attribute. Mental Prodigy is a special case and counts as one enhancement towards the limit no matter how many variations are taken.

Toughness: With this Enhancement the Nova becomes literally too tough to die.  For each level of Mega Stamina the Nova can survive being Dead for one hour.  The Nova can be brought back to life through conventional means if the cause of death was cardiovascular or if it was arrived at from overflow Bashing damage (One or more levels of Bashing damage once the Health track has filled up with Lethal damage).  Novas who die from Lethal damage can survive and even revive themselves with the Regeneration Enhancement.  Novas who are killed by Aggravated damage can only be brought up to a survivable state by the Healing power at the cost of one Willpower and twice the normal Quantum expenditure by the healing Nova.  In any case the maximum amount of damage a Nova with Toughness can survive beyond 'Dead' is one level per total (Mega Stamina x 2) + Stamina.  For example a Nova with Stamina of 3 and Mega Stamina of 2 could take up to 7 levels of damage beyond dead and still be recoverable for the next two hours.

Bide: With this Enhancement the nova can choose to act last in a turn of combat thereby assuring that his action goes unopposed. In effect the nova is acting at the last moment while others are distracted by deciding what to do next or just registering what has happened the previous turn. If two novas have this Enahncement then the one with the highest initiative goes last. If their initiative is the same then roll a single die to determine who goes last. To use this Enhancement the nova spends one point from his Quantum Pool and then reserves his action for the last. All other participants and character present must use all their actions or forfiet them before the nova who uses Bide can act. If the nova who uses Bide has extra attacks from Quickness or Accelerate Time he can use them to dodge attacks directed at him but not to initiate attacks or even counterattacks such as Power Blocks or Riposte type manuevers. At the end of the turn the nova can then use his normal action for whatever purpose he would normally be allowed to use it and can even split the action. He cannot however use actions gained from Quickness and Accelerate Time or other action giving powers.

Hold: Hold allows the nova to capture a person or object with the force of his Quantum aura. All autosuccesses from Mega Strength are counted towards any resisted rolls to keep the held victim from escaping. This also applies to power rolls by the victim such as Teleport, Bodymorph, etc. used to escape the hold. Powers used to escape that do not have a dice pool (such as Density Control-Decrease) default to Stamina for the resisted roll. Of course the nova has to first catch the victim before he can be held. So while a victim can be held while he is trying to become intangible the nova could not grab an already intangible nova.

Damn Cute:  The nova with this enhancement is too damn cute for words.  Her mere presence elicits a chorus of Ooh's and Aww's wherever she goes.  People find it hard to remain mad at her even if they have no particular feelings for her otherwise.  This nova finds that forgiveness comes much easier than permission.  A nova who is damn cute can get away with murder.  Sometimes quite literally as people who look at her automatically assume she's blameless even in the presence of overwhelming evidence.  This enhancement won't save a nova from an angry mob bent on killing her but if the person is at all predisposed to give the nova the benefit of the doubt then this enhancement will ensure that she gets the lightest treatment possible.  This enhancement also makes it very difficult for people to suspect the nova of any ulterior motive or insincere intent.
 System:  The nova can spend One Quantum to activate this enhancement for a scene.  Once activated the nova can roll Appearance, resisted by the target's Manipulation or Willpower.  Each net success reduces the effective Strength with which the target can attack the nova using Damn Cute.  In effect this enhancement causes the target to 'pull his punch'  If the attack is physical the Strength is taken first from Mega Strength and then from strength plus combat modifiers until the Strength of the attack is 0.  Attacks from powers are reduced from the Mega Dice of the attack first if applicable, then the Power level and the Quantum level if that also provides damage for the attack.  The damage converted from successes (up to a maximum of five) is applied even if the Strength of the attack is reduced by more than the necessary to reach 0 after Combat modifiers and Strength are calculated.  A lethal or aggravated attack reduced to strength 0 is considered bashing.  While active this enhancement also adds a number of dice equal to the Mega Appearance of the nova to any Subterfuge or Perform attempt.

Optional Maxxing Rule

When maxxing for damage the damage multiplier for power rating is increased by one per two success. This leads to some really impressive damage resulting from Maxing as a lowly Quantum bolt can easily go from [Qx2] + (Px4) to Px6 or Px7. Extremely dissuasive to adding the area extra if the PC has any sense of civic conscience.

And also during maxing, any Extra can be added to a maxxed power for two successes.

Clarified Botch Rule

For powers that provide automatic successes from Quantum the dice roll has to exceed the difficulty of the roll for any of those successes to be counted.  In effect these successes increase the effect of the power but do not determine if the use of the power is successfull.  In other words if a players rolls three ones a six and a four on a Teleport roll it doesn't matter that he has Quantum of Four it is still a botch.

Superior Strength/Muscle replacement

•	One extra success on all Might/Damage rolls. Can lift an additional 100 kilograms.
••	Two extra successes on all Might/Damage rolls. Can lift an additional 200 kilograms.
•••	Three extra successes on all Might/Damage rolls. Can lift an additional 300 kilograms. Can leap 25% farther.
••••	Four extra successes on all Might/Damage rolls. Can lift an additional 400 kilograms. Can leap 50% farther.
•••••	Five extra successes on all Might/Damage rolls. Can lift an additional 500 kilograms. Can leap twice as far.

This also works for proto-Aberrants and exceptional humans (Doc Savage). The other Superior attributes work like Mega Abilities; 7-9 is one success, and a ten is two successes. Superior attributes don't have enhancements but the higher levels have certain advantages. Superior Dexterity 3 gives a +1 to Initiative (progressive up to +3) and level 5 gives an extra attack like Quickness (except that you don't have to pay quantum to activate it). Superior Stamina 3 gives a +1 to offset wound penalties (progressive up to +3) and an additional Health level at level 5. Superior Wits would work like Superior Dexterity except for level 5 which would give an additional +3 to Initiative instead of an extra action.

Damage of nuclear bombs.

Warhead	Effect	Expected damage
10KT (0.01MT)	18[30]	37.2
100KT (0.1MT)	36[60]	74.4
11000KT (1 MT)	72[120]	148.8
10,000KT (10MT)	144[240]	297.6
100,000KT (100MT)	288[480]	595.2

Falling damage table.
 Falling damage is bashing except at terminal velocity where the damage turns lethal.  When falling distances that are excessive, such as from orbit or a high flying plane the soak of the character is reduced by half.

Dist   Damage
1 m = 1d10
2 m = 1d10 + [1]
3 m = 2d10 + [1]
9 m = 3d10 + [2]
12 m = 4d10 + [2]
15 m = 5d10 + [3]
18 m = 6d10 + [3]
21 m = 7d10 + [4]
24 m = 8d10 + [4]
27 m = 9d10 + [5]
30 m = 10d10 + [5]
33 m = 11d10 + [6]
36 m = 12d10 + [6]
39 m = 13d10 + [7]
42 m = 14d10 + [7]
45 m = 15d10 + [8]
48 m = 16d10 + [8]
51 m = 17d10 + [9]
54 m = 18d10 + [9]
57 m = 19d10 + [10]
60 m = 20d10 + [10] Terminal Velocity

Optional Staggering Rule
    It follows the rules for your standard Maxxing roll but instead of giving extra successes it allows you to 'stack' one power on top of another. The system works like this, a Nova with two powers that can work in a stacked manner pays one point of temp Willpower and rolls his Quantum paying one Quantum pool per die rolled. For each success he can use one level of each of the stacked powers he wants to use. On the next turn he unleashes the stacked powers as a single action rolling each dice pool separately using the powers involved up to the limit of the successes rolled. Example: In one encounter Dr. Destruction was taunting Basara by using this technique in front of him. I rolled his Quantum like a standard power max and acheived four successes. Two went to Teleport and two went to Disintegrate. On the next round Basara teleported straight away several thousand kilometers into outer space. Even so when Dr. Destruction rolled his Teleport he got one success more than Basara. Dr. Destruction has Disintegrate at 5 but could only use 2 of those dice. So when Basara arrived at his Teleport location the Disintegrate Staggered with Teleport fried him for about 9 levels of damage. He was left at exactly Incapacitated and if Dr. Destruction would have had those extra three extra dice for the Disntegrate he probably would have finished Basara with that one attack.

Optional Matter Creation Rule
    Spend One point of Quantum per success used in the creation of the material/object (successes above those required for success don't count) plus one Permanent point of Quantum Pool to make the object Permanent.

---

All Images are Copyright © 2002 William Adams and cannot be reproduced without permission.
Some Characters are inspired by the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer and their use here does not represent a challenge to any pre-existing copyrights or trademarks.
Warning: This comic may include adult situations and suggestive dialogue not suited for minors.

Send me an Email