Some clarification needed.

Forum for discussion of Victorious, the upcoming Siege Engine RPG

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OfficerZan
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Some clarification needed.

Post by OfficerZan »

Had a large post but time-out when I walked away...TL;DR version it is! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
  • Armor Power: Supposedly "Damaging Things" refers to reading the Battle Suit power. Nothing actually says this, nor does anything in the Battle Suit section explain how Armor is damaged/repaired considering that nothing I can find in the book explains how to deal with "In such a case, the remaining damage is inflicted on the Armors structure; see the Damage section for details." How much structure? How is it repaired?
  • Battle Suit: Starts with four powers...for how many slots? Is it 1:1? Also, The Contraptionist, only has 2. None of the statblocks in "The Good and the Bad" seem to follow the "Each power in the battle suit is ranked at one-half the total number of powers put into the battle suit..." so there are no good examples of how to handle Battle Suits. Speaking of...why the intelligence limit? What about a super that lacks super-intelligence using a suit designed by someone else ala War Machine or Rescue?
  • Combining Packages: Gadget says, "The gadget package cannot be combined with any other packages..." can any package be combined with other packages? How?
  • Benefits and Limitations of powers in Packages: Simple, how does it work? Ironclad Mark 2B Suit 6 for example does it I assume with it's Lightning Speed being reduced to 1, even though 8 powers are in it. But what about having a Theme 2 but wanting one of the powers to have a benefit without increasing the rank of the theme or other powers?
  • Temporal Damage: More of a critique I guess, but there should really be explanation of certain terms like this in a place like a glossary. The definition of "Temporal" damage used in Victorious is uncommon enough that buried in the Invulnerability power should not be the only place explaining what it actually is...

DMMike
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Re: Some clarification needed.

Post by DMMike »

Hi!

First off, apologies for the typos and missing section. A bit of confusion at the printers had the non-edited file being printed in lieu of the corrected file. <sigh!>

As to your q’s:

“Armor Power: Supposedly "Damaging Things" refers to reading the Battle Suit power. Nothing actually says this, nor does anything in the Battle Suit section explain how Armor is damaged/repaired considering that nothing I can find in the book explains how to deal with "In such a case, the remaining damage is inflicted on the Armors structure; see the Damage section for details." How much structure? How is it repaired?”

A critical hit of a natural “20” on a Battlesuit defines damage to a part of the suit. This is determined by the Genteel Magistrate by a random rol. Normally with 4 slots that’d be a D4 and result in 1 rank of reduction to the suit. This was an optional rule (aren’t they all?) that I’ve found distinguishes the Battlesuit over other packages.

Repair is a narrative bit on the part of the GM, but a good rule I use in my home game is 1 week per rank to be repaired, reduced by 1 day for each attribute bonus of the repairing Contraptionist. Spending a Victory point shaves 1 week off this. If you want to be really tough, require an INT check for each repaired rank or add another week.

“Battle Suit: Starts with four powers...for how many slots? Is it 1:1?“

½ cost, much like the Gadget. Thus a Battlesuit starts with a minimum cost of 2 ranks.

“Also, The Contraptionist, only has 2.”

Like most powers, a reduction of slots means a reduction of cost. In that case, 2 slots = 1 power rank cost. You’re right though in that should’ve been made clearer.

“None of the statblocks in "The Good and the Bad" seem to follow the "Each power in the battle suit is ranked at one-half the total number of powers put into the battle suit..." so there are no good examples of how to handle Battle Suits.”

Please keep in mind those initial costs are just that, initial for character generation. When suits are improved beyond a rank 1 power slot or as the character increases in level the costs change to 1 for 1. Thus a 6th level Battlesuit wearing hero will mathematically look a bit different from a 1st level Battlesuit wearer. That’s because s/he has 5 more slots to allocate.

“Speaking of...why the intelligence limit? What about a super that lacks super-intelligence using a suit designed by someone else ala War Machine or Rescue?”

It’s a bit arbitrary, but its there to keep a INT 12 Contraptionist being equal (Gadget or Battlesuit-wise) to an INT 22 Contraptionist. In such a case the INT bonus of the designer is used instead of the wearer. As ever, with the approval of the GM to make sure this isn’t a mode of Min/Maxing. Unless you want that, of course!

“Combining Packages: Gadget says, "The gadget package cannot be combined with any other packages..." can any package be combined with other packages?”

If you want to, but I’d recommend against it. Not only does it increase math, it can devolve into constant sub-sub-sub powers. Remember if you do, a power MUST cost at least 1 rank no matter how much its jiggered.

“Benefits and Limitations of powers in Packages: Simple, how does it work? Ironclad Mark 2B Suit 6 for example does it I assume with it's Lightning Speed being reduced to 1, even though 8 powers are in it. But what about having a Theme 2 but wanting one of the powers to have a benefit without increasing the rank of the theme or other powers?”

Treat the power on its own. Pay for the supernatural powers through the suit. Once you do that, start adding the cost/benefit to each individual power as if it were a single unpackaged power. Don’t forget though, when it comes to packages a power that affects one power in the package affects them all at once! That’s one of the limits to packages.

“Temporal Damage: More of a critique I guess, but there should really be explanation of certain terms like this in a place like a glossary. The definition of "Temporal" damage used in Victorious is uncommon enough that buried in the Invulnerability power should not be the only place explaining what it actually is...”

Absolutely right. This should be at least in the “Damaging things” section. It was in the corrected print file but as noted above the ball got dropped when getting to the printer.

On a side note, my wife and I had 24 hours to get the corrections for all 5 books (!) before finally going to the printer. Then, the corrected files never got used! :P

Mike, still grumpy about that… ;)
The Save for Half Podcast: Old School RPGs Reviewed
http://www.saveforhalf.com

Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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Traveller
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Re: Some clarification needed.

Post by Traveller »

Mike, you're not the only one grumpy about that. :mad:

DMMike
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Re: Some clarification needed.

Post by DMMike »

:lol: No doubt!

For those not in the know, Traveller was the editor on Victorious. He was great to work with BTW, but as noted earlier only some corrections made it in.

Someday a revised Victorious might be in the offing.
I need to check with Steve to see how many hardbacks are left. If there's to be another printing, we NEED to get this errata fixed beforehand.

Mike
The Save for Half Podcast: Old School RPGs Reviewed
http://www.saveforhalf.com

Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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Lurker
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Re: Some clarification needed.

Post by Lurker »

Officer Z

Let me welcome you to the boards.

Despite the grump guys around here - Me included, just ask my daughters! ;) - there are a bunch of good guys here that can normally answer any of your questions.

For your questions, I defer to the writer of the rules on the specifics

My only helpful input will be to say that any of the character creation packets can be very useful when you use various shortcomings to get additional points to buy skills and abilities. Be creative with the shortcomings and limitations of the powers when you create the character.

With them you can create almost any character you can think of.

Oh yeah, I will also say, do not forget how useful buying additional primes and skills is. From personal expectance, it is as important to have skills and primes as it is to have powers !

That said, again welcome and enjoy
"And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows!" - Mark Twain

Forgive all spelling errors.

Knight Errant & Humble C&C Society Contributor
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DMMike
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Re: Some clarification needed.

Post by DMMike »

Lurker wrote:Officer Z

Let me welcome you to the boards.

Despite the grump guys around here - Me included, just ask my daughters! ;) - there are a bunch of good guys here that can normally answer any of your questions.

For your questions, I defer to the writer of the rules on the specifics

My only helpful input will be to say that any of the character creation packets can be very useful when you use various shortcomings to get additional points to buy skills and abilities. Be creative with the shortcomings and limitations of the powers when you create the character.

With them you can create almost any character you can think of.

Oh yeah, I will also say, do not forget how useful buying additional primes and skills is. From personal expectance, it is as important to have skills and primes as it is to have powers !

That said, again welcome and enjoy
What he said! ;)

Mike
The Save for Half Podcast: Old School RPGs Reviewed
http://www.saveforhalf.com

Victorious: Steampunk Adventure in the Age of SuperMankind
http://www.victoriousrpg.com

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