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BY DESIGN - PLOT-STOPPING POWERS
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many cases it’s right to allow them to do so, but the power can short-circuit some challenges in an adventure. The first thing to keep in mind is there are other means of detecting an invisible character. The basic version of In- visibility is visual concealment, meaning it doesn’t affect things like sonar (or normal hearing, for that matter), scent, or exotic methods of detection, including high-tech scanners and mental senses.
Common tricks for foiling invisibility include coating the target with flour, soot, paint, or the like. The target is visible only for a few seconds, then the foreign material becomes invisible as well. Things like spreading water or flour on the floor (so the invisible character leaves visible footprints) may be more effective.
As a last-ditch effort when confronted by an invisible oppo- nent, turn out the lights! Plunging an area into darkness (or filling it with fog, smoke, etc.) doesn’t overcome the invisibil- ity, but applying Visual Concealment to everybody does even the odds; you can’t see them, but they can’t see you, either.
MIND CONTROL
Any Affliction with the compelled or controlled condi- tions can not only neutralize an enemy in combat, but also turn him into an (unwilling) ally! This is especially prob- lematic with major antagonists; the heroes have their final confrontation with the villain and one hero wraps it up by dominating the dastard’s will so he surrenders. Rather an- ticlimactic, isn’t it?
One means of dealing with mind control powers is to ensure your major villains have sufficient Will defense to ward them off most of the time. This is perfectly in char- acter for world-conquering megalomaniacs and other master villains, especially if the antagonist has some mental powers of his own.
If you want to challenge a mind controlling hero, either use a group of adversaries too large to control at once, or opponents with essentially no living minds to control and Immunity to Mental Effects: undead, robots, or the like. On the other hand, feel free to allow the heroes to control minor antagonists. Indeed, many of a villain’s lackeys are likely to have a fairly low Will defense, making them vul- nerable to this tactic. You may even want to allow the flaw “Limited to Unimportant Characters” or “Limited to Minions” for mind control powers, giving players a cost- break while limiting the power so it doesn’t mess with your major characters.
MIND READING
If a mystery or secret hinges on something the NPCs know and the PCs don’t, Mind Reading can end the adventure in a single power check. Heroes may have personal codes keeping them from using mind reading powers casually, but even that may not restrain a hero when the need is great. As with mind control, you can give important characters sufficient Will ranks to resist mind reading attempts, but
this can be something of a cheat. It’s fair for some oppo- nents, but if it happens all the time, the player is likely to become understandably frustrated. The same is true of using opponents immune to mind reading by virtue of being machines, undead, or other non-human creatures. A middle ground in settings where mind reading is a known ability is to allow antagonists to take precautions, but present them as challenges rather than insurmount- able obstacles. For example, opponents might use their own mental abilities to condition their agents to forget certain sensitive information, requiring an opposed power check against the conditioner’s check total to retrieve the information. The same is true of villains who condition their minions to die or otherwise self-destruct rather than yield to a mental probe. Can the hero recover some useful fragment of knowledge in time?
Antagonists with mind-reading enemies are likely to share information sparingly; a lackey can’t reveal what he doesn’t know. Instead of immediately getting the answer to a question, a mind reader might instead pick up further clues to lead the heroes deeper into the adven- ture. Reading the mind of the would-be assassin provides clues about his employer, who in turn is connected to the mastermind’s lieutenant, who can lead the heroes to the main antagonist, who all the while is plotting to eliminate them before they get too close.
POSTCOGNITION
The ability to “read” the past of a place or object can provide heroes with considerable information. Want to know who the murderer is? Trying to figure out what hap- pened in a locked room? Just use Postcognition and its secrets are revealed!
The Gamemaster can keep some psychometric readings vague, providing enough clues to move the plot along without giving everything away. Postcognition may provide unclear images or visions, perhaps colored by the points of view of the people involved in the events. Savvy criminals may use certain countermeasures to cover their tracks, erasing or “blurring” psychic traces, perhaps even leaving magical or psychic “traps” for any would-be postcognitive investigators, triggered by an attempt to view the events in the future. For example, a mastermind who killed a would-be informant of a coming plot might assassinate a random person in the same spot 24 hours later, creating psychic disturbances that obscure the earlier crime and leading any postcogs on a wild goose chase.
PRECOGNITION
Precognition is a particularly problematic ability, since the players have to have free will to make decisions about their heroes’ future actions, or the game isn’t much fun! Therefore Precognition is rarely reliable.
Gamemasters should often couch precognitive visions in symbolism and dream-like imagery, leaving them open to interpretation. This gives you the most possible latitude to make the vision fit the events of the game as they unfold.
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You should consider whether or not a precognitive vision is something that must happen or something that may happen, but might not if the heroes take a different path. The latter choice is far easier to deal with, but encourag- es the use of precognition as a means of detecting and avoiding problems.
As a balancing factor for Precognition, consider using it to expand the Edit Scene and Inspiration aspects of spend- ing hero points (Deluxe Hero’s Handbook, pages 20–21), allowing the precognitive to spend points to modify or learn things other characters with less insight cannot. So a precog’s player might spend a hero point to have an important item with the explanation “I had a premo- nition I would need this,” for example, or even have the rest of the team show up as back-up when the precog gets into trouble, with the explanation that they received a message from the precog to be at a particular place and time, knowing they would be needed!
SENSES
If a mystery or secret is behind a barrier of some sort, sensory effects can short-circuit the entire plot.
Keep in mind the guidelines for searches and perception given in the Deluxe Hero’s Handbook (see the Perception skill). Just because a character can see through walls doesn’t mean he automatically knows where to look for something! Searching a large area can be like looking for a needle in a haystack even with the advantage of sensory powers. Of course, simply being able to sense something doesn’t mean heroes can understand it, either. Things like codes, ciphers, and even obscure or secret languages can foil super-powered voyeurs.
If there are means of detecting the use of sensory powers to prevent being spied upon, then characters are likely to be more cautious about using them. Such detection might come from others with similar powers, technology, or devices (such as crystals that glow in the presence of magical or psychic energies, for example).
TELEPORT
This power allows heroes to bypass the normal limitations of distance as well as overcoming many barriers. It renders many challenges—locked doors, cages, and chasms, for example—largely moot.
This isn’t a problem so long as adventures don’t rely on those sorts of challenges. If they do, you need to find a way of limiting the hero’s mobility. This can be as simple as using an appropriate countermeasure for the power, perhaps even requiring some type of barrier the character cannot teleport through, or as involved as creating other challenges for the hero to overcome. As a simple but effective obstacle, remember that Teleport normally requires being able to ac- curately sense the destination; placing the teleporter’s cage hanging over a pit in a dark room will stop him from tele- porting blindly outside. Or even having the villain tell the teleporter that’s the case might do it…