Ultimate Powers Book
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RANGE TABLES Rank Range A Range B Range C Range D Range E Feeble Contact Contact 1 area 10 feet 2 miles Poor 1 area 1 area 10 areas 1 area 25 miles Typical 2 areas 5 areas 1 mile 4 areas 250 miles Good 4 areas 10 areas 3 miles 16 areas 2500 miles Excellent 6 areas 25 areas 6 miles 64 areas 25,000 miles Remarkable 8 areas 1 mile 12 miles 6 miles 250,000 miles Incredible 11 areas 2 miles 25 miles 250 miles 2.5 million miles Amazing 20 areas 3 miles 50 miles 1000 miles 25 million miles Monstrous 40 areas 6 miles 120 miles 4000 miles 250 million miles Unearthly 60 areas 10 miles 250 miles 16,000 miles 2.5 billion miles Shift X 80 areas 15 miles 500 miles 64,000 miles 25 billion miles Shift Y 160 areas 30 miles 1200 miles 250,000 miles 250 billion miles Shift Z 400 areas 50 miles 2500 miles 1 million miles 1/2 light year CL1000 100 miles 80 miles 5000 miles 4 million miles .5 light years CL3000 10,000 miles 150 miles 12,000 miles 16 million miles 50 light years CL5000 100,000 miles 250 miles 250,000 miles 64 million miles 500 light years AREA OF EFFECT Rank Name Radius (in feet) Area Volume Feeble 1 3 sq. ft. 3 cu. ft. Poor 2 12 sq. ft. 25 cu. ft. Typical 4 200 sq. ft. 200 cu. ft. Good 10 314 sq. ft. 3,140 cu. ft. Excellent 15 707 sq. ft. 10,600 cu. ft. Remarkable 20 1,256 sq. ft. 25,120 cu. ft. Incredible 30 2,826 sq. ft. 85,000 cu. ft. Amazing 50 7,850 sq. ft. 392,000 cu. ft. Monstrous 100 31,400 sq. ft. 3,140,000 cu. ft. Unearthly 200 125,600 sq. ft. 25,120,000 cu. ft. Shift X 500 785,000 sq. ft. 392,500,000 cu. ft. Shift Y 1,000 3,140,000 sq. ft. 3,140,000,000 cu. ft. Shift Z 2,000 12,560,000 sq. ft. 25,120,000,000 cu. ft. CL1000 1 mile 3 sq. miles 1.3 cu. miles CL3000 2 miles 12 sq. miles 25 cu. miles CL5000 5 miles 78 sq. miles 392 cu. miles 1 square mile = 28 million square feet 1 cubic mile = 147 billion square feet PDF Version 1.1 Table of Contents Introduction.........................................................................2 Illusory Powers..............................................................31 Character Generation ........................................................3 Life Control Powers.......................................................35 How We Do It .................................................................3 Magical Powers.............................................................41 Physical Form.....................................................................3 Matter Control Powers ..................................................49 Type Definitions..................................................................3 Matter Conversion Powers............................................59 Origin of Power ...............................................................10 Matter Creation Powers ................................................63 Primary and Secondary Abilities.......................................11 Mental Enhancement Powers .......................................68 Weakness Generation......................................................12 Physical Enhancement Powers ...................................80 Power Generation ............................................................14 Power Control Powers ..................................................82 Power Categories.............................................................14 Self-Alteration Powers...................................................86 Power Listings ..................................................................18 Travel Powers ..............................................................93 Defense Powers............................................................18 Index ..............................................................................101 Detection Powers .........................................................19 Range Table .............................................inside front cover Energy Control Powers .................................................21 Area of Effect Table .................................inside front cover Energy Emission Powers .............................................26 Movement Table ......................................inside back cover Fighting Powers ............................................................29 Simultaneous Action/Target Table ...........inside back cover This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written consent of TSR, Inc., and Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd, Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. All characters appearing in this gamebook and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of the Marvel Entertainment Group. Inc. MARVEL SUPER HEROES and MARVEL SUPER VILLAINS are trademarks of the Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. ©Copyright 1987 Marvel Entertainment Group, Inc. Game Design ©1986 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Credits: Author: David E. Martin Typographer: Kim N. Lindau Editor: Karen S. Martin Keyliner: Stephanie Tabat Cover Artist: Jeff Butler Interior Artists: The Marvel Bullpen Welcome to the Ultimate Powers Book. What you hold in your hands is a distillation of months of rather peculiar research. The idea was to create an encyclopedic listing of the all the known super powers ever to appear in any comic book, science fiction or fantasy literature, film, or role-playing game. Once these were identified and catalogues, the next phase was to fill in as many holes as I could imagine. What super powers should exist but have not yet been used? I think I found most of the holes; you can discover some of these as the more bizarre listings in the Ultimate Powers Book. The final phase was adapting all this work to a form that you, the player, can use. Okay, here it is. In the Player’s Book of the MARVEL SUPER HEROES Advanced Set, there is a character generation system that gives you a choice of five basic character types plus a way of randomly determining what Powers and Power ranks they possess. Other comic book role playing games have their own systems. Most of them, I feel, generate characters that would have trouble besting the assistants of many characters in comic books today. When I was creating The Ultimate Powers Book, I wanted to create a system that would allow players to generate anyone—from a bona fide deity (in comics terms, naturally) to Aunt May. The character generation system that begins this book is what resulted from that desire. The Ultimate Powers Book is not a game in itself. Rather it is a supplement designed to enlarge the character generation system of the game you are already playing. Think of it as souping up for game mechanics. This book also retains its original purpose, that of a way to interpret existing comic book characters and hopefully create new ones. As I sit here banging away on the keyboard, I like to think that maybe somewhere in here in the genesis for the next comic book super hero. I’ve said enough. You have a new world to explore, the world of Ultimate Power. Enjoy! This book is not an exact replica of the original Ultimate Powers Book, as it contains addenda material and minor typographical corrections. Text appearing in red is from “The Ultimate Addenda”, an article by David Edward Martin which appeared in Dragon Magazine #122, June 1987. 2 CHARACTER GENERATION HOW WE DO IT 47 Surgical Composite — physically and genetically altered. The 48-19 Modified Human Organic Fantastic Four are examples of this type. The following is a system for creating new 60-61 Modified Human Muscular Induced Mutants roll their random characters in the Marvel Universe or 52-53 Modified Human Skeletal ranks for Primary Abilities on Column 1 whatever section of the Multiverse you 54-57 Modified Human Extra Parts of the Random Ranks Table. play in. Newly generated characters have 58 Demihuman Centaur Induced Mutants can raise any one the advantage of being unique to the 59 Demihuman Equiman Primary Ability +1CS. player, and thus (in my eyes, at least) the 60 Demihuman Faun player has a firmer commitment to them. A 61-62 Demihuman Felinoid Random Mutation: The hero was born player Invests more of his energy and 63-64 Demihuman Lupinoid to Normal Humans, but a freak twist of imagination in a character he creates 66-66 Demihuman Avian genetic fate made him a mutant from himself. They also offer an advantage to 67 Demihuman Chiropteran birth. Most of these are the Mutants the Judge. Because player-generated 68 Demihuman Lamian found in the Marvel Universe, such as characters don't have to adhere to 69 Demihuman Merhuman the X-Men. someone else's continuity, all restraints in 70 Demihuman Other Random Mutants roll on Column I of that area of the game are gone. All bets 71-72 Cyborg Artificial the Random Ranks Table. are off and anything can happen. limbs/organs They gain one additional Power. The Ultimate Powers Book generation 73-74 Cyborg Exoskeleton Resources are reduced -1 CS. system has seven steps. 76-76 Cyborg Mechanical Endurance Is raised +1CS. • Generate a physical form. Body • Generate an Origin of Power. 77-79 Cyborg Mechanically Breed Mutants: The hero's parents were • Generate Primary Abilities. Augmented Mutants, as were any number of • Generate Secondary Abilities. 80-82 Robot Human preceding generations. Breed Mutants • Generate a Weakness. Shape form