Drawbacks

Drawbacks are weaknesses for characters to overcome. They|re the flip side of a character|s skills, feats, and powers. Drawbacks serve two main purposes. First, they provide characters with additional depth and a degree of vulnerability, which can be important for heroes able to move mountains or bounce bullets off their chests. Second, drawbacks give you additional power points during character creation to spend on improving your character|s traits. The maximum number of points you can get from drawbacks is generally equal to the campaign|s power level, as set by the GM (see Power Level, page 24).

Drawback Value

A drawback|s power point value is based on two things: its frequency (how often the drawback affects your character) and its intensity (how seriously the drawback affects your character). The more frequent and intense the drawback, the more points it|s worth. Drawbacks generally range in value from 1 power point for something that comes up rarely and has little effect to 5 power points for a drawback that comes up all the time and seriously weakens the character.

Frequency

Drawbacks have three levels of frequency: uncommon, common, and very common. Uncommon drawbacks show up about a quarter of the time, every four adventures or so. Common drawbacks show up about half the time, and very common drawbacks show up three-quarters of the time or more.

Each level has a frequency check associated with it, which is a simple d20 roll with no modifiers against a DC (15, 10, or 5). A GM who wants to randomly check a drawback makes a frequency check to see if it shows up in the adventure. Otherwise, the GM can simply choose to bring a drawback into play based on its frequency.

Note that frequency represents how often the drawback comes up during the game, not necessarily how common it is in the campaign setting. Even if glowing meteors are extraordinarily rare in the setting, if they show up every other adventure, they|re still common in frequency.

Value	Frequency: How often does the drawback come up?
+1	Uncommon (every few adventures, DC 15)
+2	Common (every other adventure, DC 10)
+3	Very Common (once per adventure, DC 5)

Intensity

The intensity of a drawback measures how much impact it has on the character. There are three levels of intensity: minor, moderate, and major. Minor drawbacks have a slight impact or are not difficult to overcome. Moderate drawbacks impose some limits, but can be overcome about half of the time. Major drawbacks impose serious limits and are quite difficult to overcome.

Value	Intensity: How seriously does the drawback affect you?
+0	Minor: DC 5 to overcome, less capable than the character, or slight limitation
+1	Moderate: DC 10 to overcome, as capable as character, or modest limitation
+2	Major: DC 15 to overcome, more capable than the character, or major limitation

Power Drawbacks

Some drawbacks are power drawbacks, meaning they apply to a particular power rather than necessarily to the character. You can think of power drawbacks as the reverse of power feats: minor limits on the power. A power can have a total value in drawbacks equal to 1 point less than its total cost (so the power must cost at least 1 power point, regardless of how many drawbacks it has).

Fitting Drawbacks To The Campaign

Although suggested values are given for various drawbacks in the following sections, the value of any drawback is based largely on its effect. So drawback values can vary from one campaign to another. For example a common Vulnerability in one setting may be uncommon in another and non-existent in a third (making it worthless as a drawback). The Gamemaster must judge the frequency and intensity--and therefore value--of each drawback based on the context of the character and the campaign as a whole.

One important guideline for Gamemasters is to ensure that drawbacks actually limit or hinder characters in some way. A drawback that doesn|t do so isn|t really a drawback at all and isn|t worth any points. Beware of players trying to create such drawbacks to give their characters the most points for the least actual limitation. If need be, you can disallow certain drawbacks entirely, if they are unsuited to the campaign.

Eliminating Drawbacks

Players can remove a drawback from a character by paying earned power points equal to the drawback|s value. The GM should also arrange for suitable events in the story to eliminate the drawback. So a disabled hero might be healed in some way, a novice learns to better control her powers (eliminating the Full Power drawback), a special treatment eliminates the hero|s Weakness, and so forth.

Drawback Descriptions

Each entry here describes the drawback|s game effect and its suggested value. Gamemasters should feel free to expand or modify this list of drawbacks as desired to suit the campaign.

Disability (-1 to -5 points)

You lack a particular ability most people have. The frequency of the drawback is based on how often this lack limits you, while the intensity represents how serious a limitation it is. Some examples include blindness (very common, major, 5 points), deafness (very common, moderate, 4 points), one arm (very common, moderate, 4 points), mute (very common, moderate, 4 points), paraplegic (common, major, 4 points), one eye (-4 with ranged attacks, common, moderate, 3 points), and illiterate (uncommon, minor, 1 point).

Note characters with certain powers may have this drawback at a lesser value. Being blind is an uncommon, minor drawback for a character with Blindsight, for example, just as being mute is an uncommon, minor drawback for a character with Mental Communication, since the drawback comes into play less often and is less trouble for the character in general.

No Wealth (-1/-2 points)

Decreasing your wealth bonus to +4 is a 1 point drawback (uncommon, minor), decreasing it to +0 is a 2 points drawback (common, minor).

Lunetas : MMDrawbacks

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