Base Raiders is a fun game, but creating new super powers can be complicated. Someone asked for a podcast that helped clarify the process, so here it is. Tom, Shaun, and I talk about how to calculate the refresh and skill point cost of a new super power (or strange skill as it is referred to in the book). If you need a copy of Base Raiders, it’s on sale right now, along with my other books!
Follow along on page 113 of the book (the power trapping chart) or use the handy PDF version, available here.
Read the Character Creation Survival Guide too!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:20 — 19.6MB)
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Someone did make a base raider skill builder and put it up on githhub. It can mess up on really complicated skills, but I really like it.
https://github.com/olslash/base-raiders-skill-calculator
Some thoughts on this from me, at higher levels it makes more sense (points) to have one or two skills with lots of trappings rather than pay the refresh to jack up many little skills. The other thing is that it again (points) makes sense to put one physical or mental type trapping on a skill from the other clump since it’s a free line cross.
Also has anyone found a good way to mark the cost for crossing lines? I just use x1/x4 etc.
Finally getting around to listening to this and it reminded me of my one trapping I never understood, Workspace.
Is the idea that putting that on a skill lets me make things without the tools on hand or would that be Craft + Unusual to make something without the tools on hand?
Having just walked a few people through power creation for my own game, I don’t think the trapping diagram is the best tool for its purpose. If the design goal is to A) encourage idiosyncratic combinations, and B) disincent lumping everything into a single mega-power, I think a simpler scaling cost would work better.
For example, if the total point cost of trappings + extras exceeds 4, each point over 4 adds +1 additional points to the total. So a power with 6 points of trappings + extras would cost 8 instead. If cost exceeds 8, each point over 8 adds +2 additional points, and so on.
This would severely hamper powers that depend on stacking lots of Variable (spell magic, shapeshifting etc.), so maybe Variable is a special exception. Only the first instance counts toward the total.
One thing that definitely needs clarification is how to price drawbacks when they only apply to some of a skill’s trappings, but not others.
That’s fair. At some point, I want to make a second edition of Base Raiders and totally revamp the power system. It’s messy as it is right now.
Thanks for the feedback Ross. Mechanical rough spots notwithstanding, the system does offer an immense degree of freedom, even by the standards of fate games.
I head a rumor that you were looking into Atomic Robo as a model. Someone made an attempt to hybridize the systems.
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/wir-base-raiders.761332/page-6#post-22318879
Ohhh, a hybrid you say? Sounds promising. I am annoyed that the new Dresden Files system was not OGL so any open implementation of a new super power system in Fate is a good lead.
That’s a real bummer. The unique stress tracks alone would be a great way to represent certain complications, other drawbacks, and even burn.
There’s always Venture City, which is OGL. Powers are mechanically independent, have drawbacks, and a form of power tier through enhancements.
The true appeal to me are the power synergies. Freeform synergies both mechanically and aesthetically replicate the crazy-quilt kitsch of Base Raiders, without Robo’s problem of having to readjust skill ratings whenever you add something new. I could see many ways to add Base Raider specific flavor, such as harmful synergies from burn.
@Ross Payton
Regarding Base Raiders, I just emailed RPPR with a copy of my rules hack for Fate Accelerated. If you’re interested, please have a look. You might find some of it useful.