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cosmicspearContent warning: This edition briefly mentions magical date rape.
Just as MegaDumbCast itself has been resurrected, I feel it's high time I revive this series as well. Honestly, a big part of why I stalled out is because this next option, Mystic Study, is one of the duller ones out there. But I can't get to something more interesting without going through it, so here we go.
My initial attribute rolls are IQ 8, ME 12, MA 10, PS 13, PP 8, PE 9, PB 10, Spd 12. Not terrible, though I would've liked to have more PE especially since mages want that, but it's not that big a deal. My roll for extra HP is only 1 so I end up with 10 total, which does admittedly suck. Fortunately everyone who studies magic gets a base SDC of 30.
My education roll is...11, which is just barely enough to be a high school graduate and avoid the dreaded street school option where you can't learn to box. High schools in the world of Heroes Unlimited offer two skill programs at +5% and ten secondary skills. Obviously one of those is gonna be physical, gotta get that high school boxing training, but I also grab the criminal skill program, because apparently high schools offer elective courses in lawbreaking that you can't get in college. The criminal program offers Streetwise (which is one of two skills for knowing where you can buy illegal stuff), Pick Locks (which lets you use the extremely detailed lockpicking system), and 3 Rogue skills of choice which I spend on Prowl, Safecracking, and Ventriloquism. Why is ventriloquism a rogue skill? Who the fuck knows, just understand that this basic feature of all standard puppet shows has a base success percentage of 16% for some reason.
Safecracking, meanwhile, is useless for this character because it gets a 10% penalty if you have less than 15 ME, but it provides a 5% bonus to regular lockpicking. It also lets me talk about the time Kevin Siembieda wrote a Safecracker class in Rifts Mercenaries (mostly CJ Carella's book), included a whole rant about how good-aligned Safecrackers NEVER use their powers for personal gain, gave it the most restrictive attribute requirements of any class in the book...and forgot to give it any way of getting the Safecracking skill. Brilliant game designer, that Kevin.
My secondary skills are, of course, mostly spent on the other important physical skills of Athletics, Body Building, Running, Swimming, Climbing, and Hand to Hand: Martial Arts because this wizard is gonna be buff. I also grab Computer Operation and Research just because.
Honestly, it's probably a good thing this character is so good at punching things because Palladium magic, aside from a few no-brainer choices, is largely freeform which here means useless.
The description tells me that my character has studied with another master for 2d4+4 years, which means I get to randomly roll something! I got 9, for all that it matters.
Now, we come to the basics of Palladium magic. Originally Heroes Unlimited used a semi-Vancian system where you got however many spells per day and you just chose what to cast, but the second edition switched to what has become the standard Palladium magic system, which is the system that debuted in Beyond the Supernatural. This system involves Potential Psychic Energy, which is not used for psychic powers and is described as the power you use to develop skills and talents over your life. Mages have a lot of PPE to spend on their magic, but because these rules were clipped out of a horror game and glued into everything whether they even remotely fit or not they describe ways to get more PPE by, say, drawing it out of ley lines that tend to be around famous power spots, or fucking murdering dudes. Yes, there are rules in this superhero game for fueling your magic powers with human sacrifice. There's also a big table of PPe values for different kinds of animals you might sacrifice instead, ranging from relatively sensible things like cows or horses to more outlandish victims like tigers.
In any case, Mystic Study characters start with 2d4x10+20+[PE value] PPE, so I roll that and get a total of 104. Not bad, all things considered. As an aside, the game says to roll 6d6 for a non-mage hero's PPE if it's ever relevant.
Next up, it's time for spells! I get four each from spells levels 1-4, plus 8 total from levels 5-10. Twenty-four spells I need to choose. Actually using them in combat is a bit of an issue, because you only get to cast two spells per round. And that number never goes up. And spell levels above 8 take even more time. Thankfully each spell only counts as two actions so Zorbulon the Magnificent or whatever I decide to call him can still punch things with the rest of his moves.
As far as the specific spells I go for:
Available spell levels go up to 15, but anything past 11 costs so much PPE that it's pretty much just a plot event.
I'm gonna declare the single creepiest spell in the list to be Love Charm, which does exactly what it says and comes with a random table to roll on to see if your magical date rape has permanently destroyed the victim's brain. It also has a note saying that good-aligned characters will "try to avoid" using it. And this was appropriate to include in the abridged spell list for the superhero RPG why, exactly?
Mystic Study characters also get a few other wizard-y powers. First up is Astral Projection, which is something Kevin thinks must be a big deal but I'm honestly not sure why. Then there's Familiar Link, which you don't get until level 3 but lets you get an animal friend whose only purpose is to be a mascot. Then there's Sense Enchantment, Sense Supernatural Evil, and Sense Magic, which are all what they sound like.
There's also a handful of skills Mystic Study characters just get by default. The first few are specific to this category: Spell Translation (which has a base success rate of 8% so honestly you'd probably be better off with deepL), Demons and Monsters, Geomancy or Lines of Power (yes, that's the full skill name), and Religion (yes, that does mean the only way to know anything about any world religions is by being a wizard). You also get the Archaeology, Chemistry, and Holistic Medicine skills at +10%, which I guess is nice.
You also get a few minor bonuses in magic combat that go up with your level.
Learning new magic is an...interesting process. It's pretty obvious that Kevin Siembieda's players spent a lot of time fucking with him with magic, and he really doesn't want his system to allow that. So the main way to get spells beyond the basic ones you get from leveling up is by having your character ask for them in character, and the section on doing this explicitly tells the GM to ground the player's character for multiple in-game months if they don't like whatever the GM gave them.
I'm not even kidding. Quoting directly from page 151 of the book: "The student should be smart enough to take "no" as the answer the first time, and bow to the Master's wisdom, taking whichever spell that might be offered (if any) as an alternative. If the student pushes his request, the Master is likely to teach him nothing until the young mage relearns the virtue of patience (2d4 months of meditative studies under the teacher's instruction; globe-hopping and crimebusting is straight out)."
Just...what the fuck, man.
Anyway, we now need to figure out the rest of this wizard's stuff. All wizards have $1d6x1,000 to start out, and I roll a 3 for that for a total of $3,000. They also have a relatively low 80% chance of owning a car, but on a 37 I get it anyway. Wizards drive conventional cars that are 1d4 years old, I roll a 2 on that.
Background info time! I roll a 65 on the birth order table so my guy is fourth born. A 14 on the weight table means he's thin, and a 45 on the height table makes him of average height. A disposition roll of 46 makes him a blabbermouth. I hit the jackpot on the life savings roll, getting a 99 for the maximum possible value of $10,000. The Land of Origin table gives me a 25, putting him in the United States. Rolling 50 for childhood environment means he's from a suburb, and a 40 on the social/economic background table means he's from a middle class family.
I name this guy Arthur Williams, and you know what? I'll just go with the stupid joke name I used earlier. When he's out superhero-ing he'll be Zorbulon the Magnificent.
Honestly, magic in Palladium is boring. At least this isn't Rifts where almost all your spells explicitly don't work on anyone because they can't go through Mega-Damage equipment, though.
Character Sheet:
Name: Arthur Williams
Hero Name: Zorbulon the Magnificent
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Alignment: Scrupulous
Level: 1
XP: 0
IQ: 8
ME: 12
MA: 10
PS: 23 (+8)
PP: 10
PE: 14
PB: 10
Spd: 29
HP: 15
SDC: 83
PPE: 104
Attacks per Melee: 5
Melee Damage: +8
Parry: +3
Dodge: +3
Roll with Punch: +10
Pull Punch: +3
Initiative: +2
Knockout Punch: 20
Pin/Incapacitate: 18-20
Save vs Magic: +2
Save vs Possession: +1
Save vs Horror Factor: +2
Power Category: Magic
Subcategory: Mystic Study
Years of study: 9
Special Wizard abilities:
-Astral Projection (6 PPE)
-Sense Enchantment
-Sense Supernatural Evil
-Sense Magic (4 PPE)
Spells:
Blinding Flash (1)
Decipher Magic (4)
Globe of Daylight (2)
See the Invisible (4)
Chameleon (6)
Fear (5)
Levitation (5)
Mystic Alarm (5)
Armor of Ithan (10)
Ignite Fire (6)
Impervious to Cold (6)
Impervious to Fire (6)
Carpet of Adhesion (10)
Charismatic Aura (10)
Multiple Image (7)
Repel Animals (7)
Sleep (10)
Fire Fist (15)
Monster Insect (50/100)
Water to Wine (40)
Education: High school
Skill Programs: Physical (+5%), Criminal (+5%)
Secondary Skills: 10
Skills:
Acrobatics (65%/65%/75%/55%)
Archaeology (30%)
Athletics
Basic Mathematics (45%)
Body Building and Weight Lifting
Boxing
Chemistry (40%)
Climbing (60%/50%)
Computer Operation (40%)
Demons and Monsters (30%)
Geomancy or Lines of Power (25%)
Gymnastics (55%/65%/65%/75%)
Hand to Hand: Martial Arts
Holistic Medicine (30%)
Language: English (98%)
Literacy: English (98%)
Pick Locks (35%)
Pilot Automobile (60%)
Prowl (40%)
Religion (35%)
Research (50%)
Running
Safecracking (15%)
Spell Translation (8%)
Streetwise (25%)
Swimming (50%)
Ventriloquism (21%)
Wrestling
Money: $1,100
Items:
Car (conventional; 2 years old)
Basic phone
Personal computer (value priced)
Large console monitor
Basic printer
Modem
Background Info:
Birth Order: Fourth Born
Weight: Thin
Height: Average
Disposition: Blabber-mouth, nice guy, but too talkative
Life Savings: $10,000
Land of Origin: United States
Childhood Environment: Suburb
Social/Economic Background: Laborer/Middle Class
Just as MegaDumbCast itself has been resurrected, I feel it's high time I revive this series as well. Honestly, a big part of why I stalled out is because this next option, Mystic Study, is one of the duller ones out there. But I can't get to something more interesting without going through it, so here we go.
My initial attribute rolls are IQ 8, ME 12, MA 10, PS 13, PP 8, PE 9, PB 10, Spd 12. Not terrible, though I would've liked to have more PE especially since mages want that, but it's not that big a deal. My roll for extra HP is only 1 so I end up with 10 total, which does admittedly suck. Fortunately everyone who studies magic gets a base SDC of 30.
My education roll is...11, which is just barely enough to be a high school graduate and avoid the dreaded street school option where you can't learn to box. High schools in the world of Heroes Unlimited offer two skill programs at +5% and ten secondary skills. Obviously one of those is gonna be physical, gotta get that high school boxing training, but I also grab the criminal skill program, because apparently high schools offer elective courses in lawbreaking that you can't get in college. The criminal program offers Streetwise (which is one of two skills for knowing where you can buy illegal stuff), Pick Locks (which lets you use the extremely detailed lockpicking system), and 3 Rogue skills of choice which I spend on Prowl, Safecracking, and Ventriloquism. Why is ventriloquism a rogue skill? Who the fuck knows, just understand that this basic feature of all standard puppet shows has a base success percentage of 16% for some reason.
Safecracking, meanwhile, is useless for this character because it gets a 10% penalty if you have less than 15 ME, but it provides a 5% bonus to regular lockpicking. It also lets me talk about the time Kevin Siembieda wrote a Safecracker class in Rifts Mercenaries (mostly CJ Carella's book), included a whole rant about how good-aligned Safecrackers NEVER use their powers for personal gain, gave it the most restrictive attribute requirements of any class in the book...and forgot to give it any way of getting the Safecracking skill. Brilliant game designer, that Kevin.
My secondary skills are, of course, mostly spent on the other important physical skills of Athletics, Body Building, Running, Swimming, Climbing, and Hand to Hand: Martial Arts because this wizard is gonna be buff. I also grab Computer Operation and Research just because.
Honestly, it's probably a good thing this character is so good at punching things because Palladium magic, aside from a few no-brainer choices, is largely freeform which here means useless.
The description tells me that my character has studied with another master for 2d4+4 years, which means I get to randomly roll something! I got 9, for all that it matters.
Now, we come to the basics of Palladium magic. Originally Heroes Unlimited used a semi-Vancian system where you got however many spells per day and you just chose what to cast, but the second edition switched to what has become the standard Palladium magic system, which is the system that debuted in Beyond the Supernatural. This system involves Potential Psychic Energy, which is not used for psychic powers and is described as the power you use to develop skills and talents over your life. Mages have a lot of PPE to spend on their magic, but because these rules were clipped out of a horror game and glued into everything whether they even remotely fit or not they describe ways to get more PPE by, say, drawing it out of ley lines that tend to be around famous power spots, or fucking murdering dudes. Yes, there are rules in this superhero game for fueling your magic powers with human sacrifice. There's also a big table of PPe values for different kinds of animals you might sacrifice instead, ranging from relatively sensible things like cows or horses to more outlandish victims like tigers.
In any case, Mystic Study characters start with 2d4x10+20+[PE value] PPE, so I roll that and get a total of 104. Not bad, all things considered. As an aside, the game says to roll 6d6 for a non-mage hero's PPE if it's ever relevant.
Next up, it's time for spells! I get four each from spells levels 1-4, plus 8 total from levels 5-10. Twenty-four spells I need to choose. Actually using them in combat is a bit of an issue, because you only get to cast two spells per round. And that number never goes up. And spell levels above 8 take even more time. Thankfully each spell only counts as two actions so Zorbulon the Magnificent or whatever I decide to call him can still punch things with the rest of his moves.
As far as the specific spells I go for:
- Blinding Flash: Ruins enemy combat numbers.
- Decipher Magic: Lets you read magic writing, which might be important.
- Globe of Daylight: Fucks up the GM's ambush plans.
- See the Invisible: Forces the GM to include invisible things for you to see.
- Chameleon: Makes you hard to see as long as you aren't doing anything you might want an invisibility effect to be able to get away with.
- Fear (Horror Factor: 16): Makes you about as scary as the alien guy on the cover of the original Rifts rulebook.
- Levitation: Lets you float in the air. What's that, you asking if you can move around? Kevin's not running a charity here, people!
- Mystic Alarm: Saves you money on a burglar alarm.
- Armor of Ithan: Blocks attacks and horribly frustrates Julian Kay's attempts to describe Palladium combat in Back to the Rifter.
- Ignite Fire: Will probably cause a lot of player-GM arguments.
- Impervious to Cold: Makes for some really confused faces when you go snowboarding.
- Impervious to Fire: Because cold wasn't enough, but I also want to point out that there's also a Resist Fire spell in level 3 with exactly the same duration. If it cost appreciably less PPE it might have a few edge cases where you'd use it but that would require Kevin to think about these costs at all.
- Carpet of Adhesion: If you're a Palladium mage and you don't pick this, either you can't get it or you're really new to this.
- Charismatic Aura: Breaks all diplomatic encounters forever.
- Multiple Image: Fun fact, the images this makes only break early if you hit them with iron, which means guns can't dispel them.
- Repel Animals: Makes all bears in the area suddenly start travelling in packs of seven.
- Sleep: Makes a sleeping potion. Sometimes you can just tell what spells Kevin couldn't figure out a solution to back in his D&D days.
- Fire Fist: Lets you punch people with fire, thus bypassing the whole "only two spells per combat round" thing. Also it just felt right for this kung fu wizard to have it as his attack spell.
- Monster Insect: Get some cannon fodder pretty much anywhere.
- Water to Wine: It's probably legit blasphemous to imply that Jesus was a witch, right?
Available spell levels go up to 15, but anything past 11 costs so much PPE that it's pretty much just a plot event.
I'm gonna declare the single creepiest spell in the list to be Love Charm, which does exactly what it says and comes with a random table to roll on to see if your magical date rape has permanently destroyed the victim's brain. It also has a note saying that good-aligned characters will "try to avoid" using it. And this was appropriate to include in the abridged spell list for the superhero RPG why, exactly?
Mystic Study characters also get a few other wizard-y powers. First up is Astral Projection, which is something Kevin thinks must be a big deal but I'm honestly not sure why. Then there's Familiar Link, which you don't get until level 3 but lets you get an animal friend whose only purpose is to be a mascot. Then there's Sense Enchantment, Sense Supernatural Evil, and Sense Magic, which are all what they sound like.
There's also a handful of skills Mystic Study characters just get by default. The first few are specific to this category: Spell Translation (which has a base success rate of 8% so honestly you'd probably be better off with deepL), Demons and Monsters, Geomancy or Lines of Power (yes, that's the full skill name), and Religion (yes, that does mean the only way to know anything about any world religions is by being a wizard). You also get the Archaeology, Chemistry, and Holistic Medicine skills at +10%, which I guess is nice.
You also get a few minor bonuses in magic combat that go up with your level.
Learning new magic is an...interesting process. It's pretty obvious that Kevin Siembieda's players spent a lot of time fucking with him with magic, and he really doesn't want his system to allow that. So the main way to get spells beyond the basic ones you get from leveling up is by having your character ask for them in character, and the section on doing this explicitly tells the GM to ground the player's character for multiple in-game months if they don't like whatever the GM gave them.
I'm not even kidding. Quoting directly from page 151 of the book: "The student should be smart enough to take "no" as the answer the first time, and bow to the Master's wisdom, taking whichever spell that might be offered (if any) as an alternative. If the student pushes his request, the Master is likely to teach him nothing until the young mage relearns the virtue of patience (2d4 months of meditative studies under the teacher's instruction; globe-hopping and crimebusting is straight out)."
Just...what the fuck, man.
Anyway, we now need to figure out the rest of this wizard's stuff. All wizards have $1d6x1,000 to start out, and I roll a 3 for that for a total of $3,000. They also have a relatively low 80% chance of owning a car, but on a 37 I get it anyway. Wizards drive conventional cars that are 1d4 years old, I roll a 2 on that.
Background info time! I roll a 65 on the birth order table so my guy is fourth born. A 14 on the weight table means he's thin, and a 45 on the height table makes him of average height. A disposition roll of 46 makes him a blabbermouth. I hit the jackpot on the life savings roll, getting a 99 for the maximum possible value of $10,000. The Land of Origin table gives me a 25, putting him in the United States. Rolling 50 for childhood environment means he's from a suburb, and a 40 on the social/economic background table means he's from a middle class family.
I name this guy Arthur Williams, and you know what? I'll just go with the stupid joke name I used earlier. When he's out superhero-ing he'll be Zorbulon the Magnificent.
Honestly, magic in Palladium is boring. At least this isn't Rifts where almost all your spells explicitly don't work on anyone because they can't go through Mega-Damage equipment, though.
Character Sheet:
Name: Arthur Williams
Hero Name: Zorbulon the Magnificent
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Alignment: Scrupulous
Level: 1
XP: 0
IQ: 8
ME: 12
MA: 10
PS: 23 (+8)
PP: 10
PE: 14
PB: 10
Spd: 29
HP: 15
SDC: 83
PPE: 104
Attacks per Melee: 5
Melee Damage: +8
Parry: +3
Dodge: +3
Roll with Punch: +10
Pull Punch: +3
Initiative: +2
Knockout Punch: 20
Pin/Incapacitate: 18-20
Save vs Magic: +2
Save vs Possession: +1
Save vs Horror Factor: +2
Power Category: Magic
Subcategory: Mystic Study
Years of study: 9
Special Wizard abilities:
-Astral Projection (6 PPE)
-Sense Enchantment
-Sense Supernatural Evil
-Sense Magic (4 PPE)
Spells:
Blinding Flash (1)
Decipher Magic (4)
Globe of Daylight (2)
See the Invisible (4)
Chameleon (6)
Fear (5)
Levitation (5)
Mystic Alarm (5)
Armor of Ithan (10)
Ignite Fire (6)
Impervious to Cold (6)
Impervious to Fire (6)
Carpet of Adhesion (10)
Charismatic Aura (10)
Multiple Image (7)
Repel Animals (7)
Sleep (10)
Fire Fist (15)
Monster Insect (50/100)
Water to Wine (40)
Education: High school
Skill Programs: Physical (+5%), Criminal (+5%)
Secondary Skills: 10
Skills:
Acrobatics (65%/65%/75%/55%)
Archaeology (30%)
Athletics
Basic Mathematics (45%)
Body Building and Weight Lifting
Boxing
Chemistry (40%)
Climbing (60%/50%)
Computer Operation (40%)
Demons and Monsters (30%)
Geomancy or Lines of Power (25%)
Gymnastics (55%/65%/65%/75%)
Hand to Hand: Martial Arts
Holistic Medicine (30%)
Language: English (98%)
Literacy: English (98%)
Pick Locks (35%)
Pilot Automobile (60%)
Prowl (40%)
Religion (35%)
Research (50%)
Running
Safecracking (15%)
Spell Translation (8%)
Streetwise (25%)
Swimming (50%)
Ventriloquism (21%)
Wrestling
Money: $1,100
Items:
Car (conventional; 2 years old)
Basic phone
Personal computer (value priced)
Large console monitor
Basic printer
Modem
Background Info:
Birth Order: Fourth Born
Weight: Thin
Height: Average
Disposition: Blabber-mouth, nice guy, but too talkative
Life Savings: $10,000
Land of Origin: United States
Childhood Environment: Suburb
Social/Economic Background: Laborer/Middle Class
no subject
Date: 2024-10-14 10:14 pm (UTC)