The Stalwart Companion

The Stalwart Companion continues on apace. I'm up to twenty more gifts (powers), and I've managed to include some of the 'tougher' ones to design...

I remember REALLY struggling with creating energy solidification for Stalwart Age. I really wanted this to feel like Green Lantern's ring, but I had the darndest time getting the rules to bend at the right angles to make it work. I had it on my list for the core rules of Stalwart, and decided it just wasn't worth the time and effort to put in the core rules - plus, I was hitting my 16-page target, and was sorting things into 'necessary' and 'less necessary'. However, I decided last night to give it a swing, and (to my mind) nailed it on the first draft.

Energy Solidification. You are able to use 1 action to shape energy into physical objects. Weapons you craft deal your power damage (and use brawling to attack). Other objects have hits equal to your power dice rating. Something you generate to lift or carry has a might rated at your power. Every item you create through solidification requires 1 action per round to maintain.

That's it. The whole thing. Easy-peasy. It sounds and feels just like a lantern ring - and it didn't require a single new subsystem, way to track objects, exceptions to the rules. It just took the existing rule framework and plugged in the appropriate information. Check. So even though Green Lantern only has Might D6, his Power D20 allows him to lift over a hundred tons with his ring. So, the idea of helping an airliner that is crashing level out and glide safely is not THAT far off the mark.

I also decided to try and replicate the Human Torch's full nova effect. Here's what I came up with:

Bomb*. No more than once per minute, you are able to emit energy in a massive blast centered on yourself. Use 1 action and roll power for damage, adding your full current hits to the result. You are immediately reduced to 0 hits, and must check might (DT 6). If successful, you are felled; if you fail, you are defeated. You deal damage in a radius of 10’ x your force. All in the area of effect suffer damage, but may check reflex (with a DT of your force) to suffer only half damage. 

Again, it was obvious (to me) how this should work within the existing rules - because the game already has rules for being felled and being defeated, it was just a matter of applying those concepts. I didn't have to develop new rules for being tired or reduced to zero hits or anything, because it is baked right in. I could just apply the existing rules to this new situation.

Thinking forward, I expect that by about 16 pages in I will exhaust almost every common, uncommon, and even rare situation that could arise. At that point, it will make sense to me to put a bow on this, and release it as a PWYW game expansion on DriveThru. DriveThru has greater visibility, and keeping updates in the larger game world's consciousness is only going to bring benefits. Then, I can add any very unusual new gifts or tags directly with the character to whom they are associated in the World of Stalwart, and dedicate all of my free time to updating that.