How to handle Wide Arrays in 3E

A place to discuss game rules, homebrew systems and the like.
Post Reply
FuzzyBoots
Posts: 2396
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:20 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

How to handle Wide Arrays in 3E

Post by FuzzyBoots »

It's pretty widely agreed that Wide Arrays in 2E were a bad idea. I'm... kind of on the fence on the 3E version introduced in the Gadget Guides. As best I can tell, it's a combination of 2E Arrays (add points to a general pool) and letting them be non-dynamic (make a 30 PP pool, and have 6 powers worth 10 PP each, and you spend 35 PP to be able to use any three of them). It seems almost obvious that dynamic powers could be used in there (the extra power point lets you adjust ranks instead of it being all-or-nothing) and that Wide Arrays are just... how Arrays work.

I actually rather like the concept in 3E as it's not over-powered for the points spent, it provides a much more elegant solution for "more than one power at full strength in the Dynamic array" than what they cobbled together by making everything AEs, and it provides a bit less incentive to max out every slot since lower-cost items can be mixed together.
jmucchiello
Posts: 3815
Joined: Sat Feb 09, 2019 7:59 pm

Re: How to handle Wide Arrays in 3E

Post by jmucchiello »

Just say Array is a power that provides a pool of PP to be spent on a fixed list of powers. It works like Variable except the alternate powers are fixed.

By calling it a power, you are no longer making an alternate effect. You are instead using a pool and thus the pool can be bigger than the largest effect in it.
FuzzyBoots
Posts: 2396
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 8:20 pm
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

Re: How to handle Wide Arrays in 3E

Post by FuzzyBoots »

The chief complaint I could see people making is allowing a semi-dynamic setup where a non-dynamic (but wide) array can be using more than one power in it. Which, I don't think is necessarily a horrible thing. You still can't adjust ranks, so you don't get the flexibility of Dynamic, plus it means you don't have to spend a point on Dynamic for powers that have no dynamic range, like Insubstantial.
Post Reply