descriptive abilities as a pendant to visual special effect in movies

[Der_Renegat]

You all know the special effect in a movie – the one that totally blasts you away, like the AT AT in The Empire Strikes Back.
Or the costume that really stands out and makes a character special, like SevenOfNine´s Catsuit.

Now HQ being a special game because you can name an ability whatever you want, what would be the special effect equivalent of a HQ character ?
Whats a descriptive special effect for rpg´s ?

A magic ability is surely one but what im looking for is a more general approach. Not just mgic. More a special way or even "formula"of designing abilities that make a real impact in play.

One example might be the ,,many legs" ability of a scorpionman.

Any other ideas ?!


Christian

[Vaxalon]

Okhfels has an "Impressive Stature" attribute, as well as "Winning Smile"

Is that what you're talking about?

[Der_Renegat]

Okhfels has an "Impressive Stature" attribute, as well as "Winning Smile"

Is that what you're talking about?

not sure really.....

what im looking for is an ability that really makes an impact in play. Its impressive and shiny and special and surprises the players who encounter the villain with that ability.

Like in that scorpion man ability. It defends with it many legs ability, because all that you ever hit are its mulitple legs.

[Mike Holmes]

The question sounds dangerously close to "How can I be creative?" Which is a pretty damn broad question. Am I missing something?

In any case, I can comment that generally I don't give abilities to things at all. When fighting the scorpion man, I simply describe it, and provide a resistance pertinent to the contest. And then in the narration, things like the effectiveness of it's many legs comes out.

Now, there are exceptions to this. Basically the rule I have is that player heroes get "the full treatment" because they're central to play. But occasionally a villain will become somewhat central himself. In that case he essentially becomes my player hero as narrator, and I'm under the same obligations as the players to make him interesting by pointing out abilities and augmenting. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

What's not good is statting most of the opposition out. For several reasons. First, if you pre-stat, then you're going to feel that push to ensure that those stats get used and force certain contests - I think this leads to mediocre play. If you don't pre-stat, but stat out fully when needed, that's a needless pause in play. Again, I do it for major villains, because they're important, and I tend to have a lot of inspirado when it happens (so it goes relatively quickly). But I can't predict who the major villains are going to be, so I don't even pre-stat out likely individuals. I don't pre-stat anything. That way I never waste any prep time.

As an example, in play last night, I needed an interruption to a scene, because a player had to take off in the middle of it. So on the spot I created a hand of earth that came up from the ground to grab the hero of the player that had left. Did I bother to say that it had "Massive Strength 10W3"? Or any other abilities? Nope, and good thing, too. Because, the other player took my sentence saying, "...and she's drawn down inexorably into the earth" to mean that I had narrated her disappearing underground, when I meant that she'd only started sinking slowly (my bad, I could have been far more clear). So instead of doing what I thought he'd do, which was use his massive Strong 10W2 to try to wrangle her out, he ran off looking for the Shaman.

The actual contest that I came up with then was to have the Shaman ask the character to befriend a spirit so that it would help the other imperiled hero. He won this contest, and the befriended spirit captured the earth spirit long enough for the captured hero to be withdrawn from the earth. So, in point of fact, I never needed to come up with a resistance for the earth spirit as there was no contest with it. Instead I had to use the resistance for befriending an unknown spirit.

(This was very cool as the player promised that the spirit practice in general could have his spirit when he died. BTW, the player in question is Fred from above in the thread.)

Note that the rules do give examples of pre-stated stuff, but I take these as just examples...nowhere do the rules say that anything has to be treated like a hero or have it's ability levels determined by anything other than the narrator picking a resistance.

The narrator created opposition is not the center of the game, the player heroes are. You'll get a lot more milage from forgetting about trying to "surprise" your players with flashy special effects, and instead focusing on giving them situations to maneuver their character through that pertain to their character's sheets. And coming up with interesting opposition on the spot as it's needed to highlight these maneuvers.

Mike

[Der_Renegat]

I think, Mike, we have different approaches.
I agree that:

The narrator created opposition is not the center of the game, the player heroes are

But that can happen in different ways in your individual game and i think one way CAN be creating interesting oppositions. A matter of taste, i think.

My question was not how to game the right way, but IF there is a way you can translate the visual thing from movies into a game that uses descriptions.

As you said, making everything up on the fly is not a must. Its a possibility and a technique.

My question is not, how can you be creative?
I was just wondering if people could help me with my idea.

So yes, basically my question is: how can you make up interesting abilities that challenge players borrowing a phenomena form special effects movies.
And how can you combine several things in an ability ?
How can you take one feature that not only describes or outfits the npc but also makes it into an interesting and challenging game special effect ability that will "blow" your players away ?
How can you find an ability that on the one hand describes an opponent in a distinctive way and on the other hand is highly relevant in actual gameplay ?

You can watch a movie that has no costumes, no buildings, no special effects, no nothing. Just a story and dialogue. And following the dynamic of the dialogues is what makes this movie so interesting.
Possible.
But maybe you´d like to watch a movie that has great costumes, pompous buildings and great special effects....(erm no, im not speaking of starwars here)
possible as well !
I think having both would be really cool !

best

Christian

[Der_Renegat]

Here is another example of what im all about.
Think of a zombie.
The traditional zombie is:

• superstrong
• slow
• clawattack

The HQ special effect zombie has:

• horrible stench
• already dead
• hunger for life

all of these three abilities are special. In most traditional rpg´s horrible stench would do nothing. In HQ you can attack with it.
All of these abilities describe the opponent in a game relevant, precise and cinematic way.
And they are a challenge to defend to.

[lightcastle]

Honestly, I think you answered your own question. Creative naming of abilities is probably the closest I can see you getting to what you are talking about.

So name them what you think accurately reflects what you want.

Your scorpion man can have "Six legs" or can have something like "Bewildering flurry of attacks". The second one certainly sounds much cooler, and is more descriptive.

(I also happen to favour something like Mike's approach, of statting far less in HQ than I ever did in another game, because it isn't necessary.)

[Der_Renegat]

Honestly, I think you answered your own question. Creative naming of abilities is probably the closest I can see you getting to what you are talking about.

It seems most people feel that way. Im not sure if what i see is just so obvious that nobody cares, or if im unable to get my point across....

Your scorpion man can have "Six legs" or can have something like "Bewildering flurry of attacks". The second one certainly sounds much cooler, and is more descriptive.

The point is not alone let something sound cool....but finding a way to name an ability in such a way that its:
a) a good summary of the "essence" of that creature
AND
b) a clever, interesting way of giving it an ability that is special.....

While "Bewildering flurry of attacks" just does one thing, that is probably augmenting your attack, the ability "Many Legs" has many purposes and can be used in unexpecting ways, like for defending.

So what im looking for is how can you come up with abilities that are just different, can be used in many and unexpected ways.

[lightcastle]

There might be some nuance we're not getting due to the language gap, but for me the answer to this

So what im looking for is how can you come up with abilities that are just different, can be used in many and unexpected ways.

is creative naming.

Ultimately, it is the Narrator's choice how something applies. I could have an ability called "Scorpion Man" and the Narrator simply say that ability applied to anything scorpionmanish the scorpion man does. (Using 6 legs while hitting you with the tail, spitting venom, scuttling up a wall, whatever).

That's the great thing about a keyword, it describes the essence of something, even if you haven't named an ability in advance.

Outside of that, all I can recommend is interesting naming. 1) It gets closer to the heart of what you mean by the trait - i.e ("cute" vs "alluring and seductive" - both are attractive, but in different ways) and 2) you can often find interesting new uses depending on how you interpret it. (Someone in my game has a trait called "Just trust me." - He uses it for persuasion, but also when he faces crazy odds.

I think it is just a matter of finding names for the abilities that both you and the narrator think are appropriate.

[Der_Renegat]

I think it is just a matter of finding names for the abilities that both you and the narrator think are appropriate.

Definitely !

There might be some nuance we're not getting due to the language gap, but for me the answer to this

It seems nobody understands what i´m all about. I tried to discuss this with german friends they dont get it either *lol*. Must be my warped way of thinking.

That's the great thing about a keyword, it describes the essence of something, even if you haven't named an ability in advance.

I´m totally aware of that aspect. Its the beauty of HQ !
Still i was about something else....
Maybe i will be able to communicate what i want to express at some future point....

Thanks for the comments !

best

Christian