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Epic's Mechanic Shop (Weapon Shop; Monster Hunter World)

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:54 pm
by EpicEclipse
Welcome to the mechanic shop. This thread is about figuring out how to recreate effects from other media using the game mechanics of Mutants and Masterminds. Primarily 3E, but I can do 2E as well with a little brushing up.

I figure there are plenty of threads for character builds, but not so many for finding more complex mechanics constructs. I'll throw up stuff myself for various anime and games I enjoy, but I'll take requests as well as I can.

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:54 pm
by EpicEclipse
DIRECTIONS:

Astrologian Draw Mechanics (from Final Fantasy XIV)
Spacial Expansion (unique power)


Weapon Shop
Monster Hunter World
(Coming soon. I'll post them as I have time. If a weapon shows as done but isn't posted, give it a few days)
× = Being worked on
* = Done
Sword and Shield
Dual Blades
Great Sword
Longsword
Hammer
Hunters Horn
Charge Blade
* Switchaxe
Lance
Gunlance
* Insect Glaive
* Bow and Arrow
× Light Bowgun
× Heavy Bowgun

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:54 pm
by EpicEclipse
*RESERVED*

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:55 pm
by EpicEclipse
*RESERVED*

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:56 pm
by EpicEclipse
And open for business

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 7:41 am
by Jabroniville
Sweet deal! Good to see you in here! I was hoping to goad you into heading over to this board at some point :).

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:16 am
by EpicEclipse
Heh, well, I'm here. I'm working on something fun for my first contribution as far as complex mechanical builds go. Astrologian's card draw mechanics. Just ironing out some details.

ASTROLOGIAN DRAW MECHANICS

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 7:38 am
by EpicEclipse
So, the mechanic that sort of inspired this thread for complex mechanics is the astrologian's card draw mechanic.

Hailing from Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward, Astrologians are a healer role class with a secondary mechanic which utilises randomly drawn cards to bestow buffs on their allies. The idea of it having random draws with a little ability to manipulate outcomes with a variety of effects so you have a grab-bag of useful buffs for different situations. In-game, the draw mechanics have timers and cooldowns as part of the balancing factors since buffs in general can be overpowered if not controlled. It's less a concern here given M&M's limited capabilities for buffing other player characters.

There are a total of 8 cards, 6 cards that can be drawn by the regular Draw effect and 2 special ones that can randomly be drawn by sacrificing a drawn card. The Balance, The Bole, The Arrow, The Spear, The Ewer and The Spire are the regular cards, while the Lord of Crowns and the Lady of Crowns are the two special cards drawn by Minor Arcana.

A card can be drawn every 30 seconds, and each buff lasts 30 seconds. Only one buff may be on an ally at any given time, so buffs, the same or different, do not stack, only the most recent kicks in.

These are the related effects that are used in the Astrologian's deck mechanics;

Draw: Draws one of the six regular cards from the Astrologian's deck. The card may be held for 30 seconds during which time no other card may be drawn. Once the card is used, or one of the other Draw-mechanic effects is used, Draw may not be used again for 30 seconds.

Redraw: Returns a drawn card to the deck and draws a different card from the five remaining cards. A redrawn card otherwise has the same timers and cooldown as a card drawn by the Draw effect.

Spread: Sets a card aside. This allows an astrologian to hang onto a card, removing the timer for using it and allowing them to call on the card's power at an opportune time. Unlike Redraw, spread does not prevent the same card from being drawn again later.

Royal Road: Expends a drawn (or redrawn) card to empower the next card that is used whether used from Draw or the Spread. Only a card that is being held by Draw or Redraw can be expended for Royal Road (not a card in the Spread). The card expended determines in what way the next used card is empowered.

Minor Arcana: Expends a currently drawn (or redrawn) card in order to randomly draw either the Lord of Crowns or the Lady of Crowns. Like Royal Road, the expended card cannot come from the Spread. Also, the Lord and Lady of Crowns cannot benefit from Royal Road.

Undraw: At any time, a Drawn card, a card in the spread or a royal road effect can be released. Draw and Spread cannot normally be overridden by using the effect again, the card must either be undrawn or used to free up the space. Royal Road on the other hand can be overwritten by expending another card.

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So we'll tackle each of these effects one by one, starting with the engine of this mechanical construct, Draw.
Draw: Variable X, Free Action, Limited (Specific Constructs)(-2)*, Uncontrollable
Cost: 4pp per rank
* = Limiting Variable to a certain subset of possible powers would be a normal -1 flaw, but in this case, we're limiting to 8 specific power configurations,
so -2 per rank feels justified. If this mechanic were to be used in a modified way for a deck with more options, a GM may use discretion to drop this it -1 per rank.
The engine that makes this mechanic run. We need enough ranks in there to build the most expensive of the 8 cards, but depending on power level, it should need too many ranks overall. Draw is set to allow a free action be used to draw a card from one of the six regular cards, allowing the standard action to remain to use the card some time before the next card is drawn. Uncontrollable is the workhorse here really. It's not so uncontrollable as in it works randomly or without the player's desire to do so, but it IS uncontrollable in that it follows certain rules; The card being drawn is randomly decided by the GM, once the card is used, sent to the spread or expended for Minor Arcana or Royal Road, the power cannot be used again for 5 rounds, and if the card is not used within 5 rounds, the variable automatically resets and may not be used for 5 rounds following.

This basically makes it function like in the game, with Uncontrollable making up for some rules that simply don't exist as flaws or mechanics in M&M.
Redraw: Feature 2 (Draw a different card once per draw, Reset Drawn card timer)
Cost: 2pp
This is pretty straight forward. It allows the player to replace the card they got with Draw with one of the other five normal cards drawn at random. This can be done at any time the Drawn card is being held and resets the 5 round limit imposed by Uncontrollable. Redraw does two things, so it's worth two Feature ranks. It can only be used one time when a card is drawn. The next time Draw is used, Redraw can be used once more. In essence, it shares a cooldown with Draw.
Spread: Feature 1 (Save a card until used), Quirk (Once used, Spread is unavailable for 5 rounds)
Cost: 1pp
Again, fairly straight forward. Once a card is drawn, the player may use Spread at any time using the 5 rounds they may hold the card, to expend it and place the card in the spread. This Feature explicitly allows the player to bypass the Variable's uncontrolled flaw and set it to a specific configuration, but only once. It does allow them to hold a card for specific timing, and doesn't interfere with them drawing other cards later on. Unlike with Redraw, having a card in the Spread does not prevent another copy of it from being drawn.
Minor Arcana: Feature 1 (Expend a drawn card to randomly draw the Lord of Crowns or Lady of Crowns and save the card until used)
Cost: 1pp
This Feature basically just opens access to Lord and Lady of Crowns, however, it works more like Spread. The Lord and Lady card expends the drawn card, starting the 5 round cooldown imposed by uncontrolled for Draw, but like Spread, Minor Arcana is an explicit exception to Uncontrolled, allowing the player to hang onto either the Lord or Lady until they need it. A player is thus able to have a Drawn Card, and Spread Card and a Minor Arcana card all at one time.
Royal Road: Array, 3 effects
Empowered: Variable X, Free action, Limited to Enhancing Card effect rank, Quirk(Can only use this array slot if a Balance or Bole card is expended)
Extended: Feature 1 (A card effect may be sustained for 10 rounds), Quirk(Can only use this array slot if an Arrow or Spear card is expended)
Expanded: Enhanced Power, Area (Burst), Selective, Variable Descriptor 2(Any normal card effect), Quirk(Can only use this array slot if an Ewer or Spire card is expended)
Cost: <Empowered> 6pp per rank -1pp, <Extended> 1pp, <Expanded> 2pp per rank +1pp
Royal Road is an interesting power array as each slot works completely differently with vastly different costs. Empowered is self contained, simply adding ranks to the existing card and probably only needs 1 or 2 ranks making that 6pp/rank cost not so scary, Extended simply modifies Uncontrolled on the Draw variable slightly, changing the time a power may be maintained for, and Expanded requires enough ranks in it to cover the ranks of the card effects (probably somewhere between 4 and 6). All three array slots have a quirk that does not allow the slot to be used until a drawn card is expended. The card in the Spread cannot be used for Royal Road. That said, the Royal Road will remain in effect until a card, either drawn or from the spread, is actually used. It is also not said in the write up, but the slot can only be used ONCE when a drawn card is expended to set the array.

Worth noting, I'd mark Final Fantasy XIV around PL6 or 7, so the card effects, as buffs, would be around there if not a little lower in rank.
Undraw: Feature 1 (Allows a drawn or spread card or the royal road to be undrawn)
This feature technically does three things, however, they are all in essence the same thing. For the drawn or spread card, it simply erases the configuration that was active or saved. For Royal Road, it effectively "uses" it so it is empty. While the Royal Road being empty is normally not an issue, it CAN be for Sleeve Draw (See below).

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Now, I mentioned an ability called Sleeve Draw before. In game what it does it randomly sets a card in Drawn, Spread, Royal Road AND Minor Arcana with Redraw as an option available to switch the Drawn card. Each effect is random but all done at once, and it's entirely possible with M&M and this mechanical construct here, and while I think I would normally save it for a stunt, this is how I would build it either way.
Sleeve Draw: Feature 4 (Randomly draws for a Drawn card, a Spread card, Royal Road and Minor Arcana), Quirk (Will not affect any cards already in play)
Cost: 3pp
I gave it 4 points of Feature simply to set the card configuration for Draw, Spread and Minor Arcana and randomly selects a Royal Road array slot as if an appropriate card were expended. The quirk is there as this does not have any Redraw effects on anything, so if the player had Lord of Crowns in their Minor Arcana, it would not be randomly chosen again, it would remain as is. If Royal Road is not empty, then it will not be changed by Sleeve Draw. The reason it is a quirk is specifically because it won't allow you to use the power as a sort of global Redraw.

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And that is more or less it for the deck mechanics. I may end up doing the cards as well, though they are a little trickier due to how finnicky M&M can be with buff-oriented powers.

To modify it for use with your own character and their own deck; the more basic thing would be using the Draw and Undraw power by themselve and possibly even Minor Arcana if they have a set of specific more powerful cards. Redraw, Spread and Royal Road are more specific to replicate the mechanics found in-game, but are largely unnecessary to a character that can simply draw random cards that have various effects.

Uncontrolled on Draw can also be negotiated with the GM as to the cooldown times, if it should even have one at all. Mileage may vary by game, but overall, the mechanic can work well for a card-using character that likes to try their luck with random outcomes.

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:14 am
by EpicEclipse
Welp, did my first big mechanic. Given that I didn't do the cards themselves yet (Probably will eventually), I can't say just how much it would cost over all, since the number of ranks needed in Draw is directly correspondent to the cost of the most expensive card to be drawn.

And if anyone is curious why I didn't make the cards an array, in 2E I would have since you can apply flaws directly to arrays in 2E, but not so much in 3E. Ultimately, the cost would have been similar, just using a set array rather than variable configurations.

SPACIAL EXPANSION

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:03 pm
by EpicEclipse
This power came up on the Ronin Army board in a recruitment thread. The way the player initially built it, given that such an effect doesn't exist by the definition of what he wanted was non-functional, but it inspired me to make mechanical magic happen.

Spacial expantion is a pretty self explanatory power. It is the opposite of folding space, it stretches it out, like the old "eternal hallway trick". No such power in the book does this... or does it?
Spacial Expantion Trap: Movement (Dimensional), Attack, Limited (Expanded space), Limited to Resistance
Cost: 1pp
Sleek, simple and holy cow effective. And customizable too for various applications. And really, with a cost that low, I highly recommend customization.
Disclaimer: I don't recommend using this base form by itself. It's cost is far below its effect. It is suggested in the next post down by Skaramine to attach it to an Affliction and substitute it for the 3rd tier affliction. That is a great idea for this single target base form of the power.
So in its base form here, you touch someone, granting a dodge or will save depending on the descriptor of your particular effect, and you expand space around them. An inch may become a mile, you might out them in an extradimensional maze of expanded and bent space they need to navigate to escape.

What the player was looking for was an effect to turn 30ft of space into 8mi of open air.
Open Sky: Movement (Dimensional), Area(Burst), Attack, Portal, Limited (Expanded space), Limited to Resistance
Cost: 3 per rank minus (effect rank-1)
For this, I added area and borrowed Portal from teleport to leave behind an effect to interact with, showing the spacial distortion so people can enter and exit at the edges of the area so long as the effect, and the Portal, are maintained.

When the effect ceases, anyone within it pops back out where they were.

Reversible is a good extra to have on there as well so you can pull people out of the effect. Selective is as good as it always is for area effects.

Last note: This power (Movement (Dimensional)) works great for "hammer space" if you need to have a mechanic for it. Sometimes it's necessary to explain how exactly you put a six foot, 1 ton mallet in your back pocket.

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 4:44 pm
by Skaramine
Hmmm. That is cheap and very dirty. Maybe put that point into a "multiple power effect" with an Affliction (Save is Dodge). Dazed and Stunned as the first two, but the definition of the third Incapacitated is "Transported to Hammerspace" or whichever.

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 5:09 pm
by EpicEclipse
That would work just fine for the single target version of the power, not quite as well for the area version with a portal. That said, the area version with a portal doesn't have the same issue of being too inexpensive. ;)

But I definitely understand 1pp being far too cheap for that effect and would definitely recommend using affliction for an actual single target spacial expantion trap, but I needed to lay that out as the ground work for the more complete effect of creating an area of spacial expansion to show how it works.

But I'll add in a disclaimer about that to avoid any further misunderstandings. :) Thanks for the input!

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 7:04 pm
by Jabroniville
You could make it Growth (Affects Others Only, Limited to Areas), with a Move Object stuck in.

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:14 pm
by EpicEclipse
Jabroniville wrote: Wed Mar 28, 2018 7:04 pm You could make it Growth (Affects Others Only, Limited to Areas), with a Move Object stuck in.
It's.....a thought. A lot more goes into it, because you end up stripping out the enhanced attributes, skills, movement speed and penalties because an "area" doesn't have those things. It's not impossible, just less elegant in execution.

That being said, if the effect you wanted was more like a magnifying glass applied to an area, Growth would be the better option, since it could grow every object within an area, though you run into problems of what to do with the space outside the area and how they are effected by this sudden increase in volume of every object in the affected area.

But that is the beauty of Movement (Dimensional), you get to define what exactly the 'dimension' you move to is. If it's a dimension where everything within the 30ft portal area is enlarged and expanded by 100 times, then it works for that. Or if the dimension is "the area is expanded and folded upon itself in strange ways to make a maze, that works too.

With Movement (Dimensional) as an attack, you can have more interactive "traps" that would have previously been handled as a 3rd tier Affliction that takes the enemy temporarily out of the battle, but also gives them nothing to do. This way they can interact with the trap, and players/gm can have a way built in for them to escape.

Re: Epic's Mechanic Shop

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:21 pm
by EpicEclipse
I have been playing a ton of Monster Hunter World lately and it got into my head to write up the weapons in M&M in case anyone got inspired to do a Monster Hunter game.

I'll be focusing on the MHW versions of the weapons (so no Hunter arts or styles Cross/Generations fans. Not yet at least), and obviously basic attacks are basic and obvious, I'm not going to be overly concerned about how particular combos work and motion value differences in damage effect because that would be excessive.

The goal is to recreate the mechanics and styles of the weapons in a more broad sense. It is also possible I may be using some extras and/or flaws that don't show up in 3e books. I'll be sure to note what those are and where they from for reference sake.

So stay tuned, cause there are several weapon types. 14 to be precise. :D