Because we are going to end up discussing mechanics a lot.

I haven't even looked at Mutants and Masterminds in the past year and a half.  SO, I'm probably a little rusty.  I have been focusing on Fate Core, Fate Accelerated and Blades in the Dark / Forged in the Dark games, so will probably be bringing in all sorts of narrative-first opinions.

I'm extremely on-board with that. The mechanical flaws in the MM3 system are well known enough to create pressure towards ungainly builds, so anything that lets people impact the game world without number crunching seems likely to minimize that.

Technically this goes over here, so. ^.^

I noticed this as well earlier. His equipment is far, FAR out of line for what equipment is meant to achieve. The whole point of equipment is for it to be useful but weaker than devices or powers. For example, there is a section in the relevant chapter that reads as follows:



There are various other outright errors, as well. For example, he has the multiattack extra on a damage effect with a range of perception. Perception range effects don't roll to hit, ergo it's impossible to benefit from the multiattack extra.

While I'm at it, it's important to note that half immunity to everything that targets the toughness defence is NOT equal to simply increasing toughness. Toughness has a cap based on power level, but immunity DOESN'T and the two of them both apply at the same time. Categorical immunity or half immunity to all effects that target a specific defence is something the rules technically allow but I would NEVER even consider allowing a player to take because of how broken it can be - you still get your dodge/parry chance when attacked, and if you happen to get hit the attack drops to half-power before you roll your toughness save. A character that favours toughness - which Golden Gun DOES - becomes incredibly difficult to threaten with damaging attacks due to this combo.

It's equivalent until we start getting hit by pl14 attacks, which doesn't seem likely any time soon. But yeah, I see the point about toughness and immunity stacking, and potentially pushing total defenses well above cap.

... Why wouldn't we face PL 14 attacks? There are six PCs, so any lone villain or monster we expect to find even remotely challenging either needs to much stronger than we are or have some kind of plan that isn't stopped simply by punching them really hard in the face.

You might well run into a PL14 attack, but it would be rather limited to a boss-fight.      Most the antagonists you'll run into will be more like henchmen or lieutenants than master villains.

So before I disappear onto a plane for a long, long time.

Are we using the RAW, where equipment can't be more than the modern day?

Or are we using Gunman's interpretation where the laser beam of death is also equipment?

I think my initial interpretation of Equipment was wrong.  Laser beams of death should be bought as Devices which falls under the buying powers category.  Sorry about that, everyone.  I'm redoing my character so that instead of having these cool devices to do cool stuff, he'll just do it himself.

While I am will for there to be exceptions (ie, the federal prison system is currently experimenting with "Nullify" technologies), they tend to be pretty severely limited in the hands of non-metas (ie, requires a power-source, limited usage, etc).

I prefer to cleave closer to the rules on this one.  Hence the issues with Golden Gunman's initial power set-up.

I referenced this old Atomic Think Tank forum topic on X-Ray vision to help me formulate an opinion.

While I concede that a narrow read on the rules would make x-ray vision unable to penetrate an obsfuscation effect (such as, say, darkness), it doesn't seem to fit with what I think you're trying to go for...  so I'm willing to allow that in gratis.

But the question, for me comes with how her perceives things.

So, let me give you a straight-forward example.



If higher-density materials appear as more opaque shades of white against a field of mostly black, he penetrates the concealment of the brick wall and sees Rick the Brick.  Would he see Alicia behind him?

Perhaps, since Rick is flesh and blood, a more ghostly reverse-shadow of Alicia would be visible superimposed on what Golden Bolt sees of Rick.  That makes sense to me.  But that brings the question to me of what would happen if you've got a dozen people lined up in a row?   At what point does it become too many ghost images to distinguish?

I know I'm splitting hairs here, but I wanted to outline a little of my thought process.   I enjoy this kind of mental wrangling.  And I'm not going to let it over-color the actual game-play.  However, I also want it clear that "Penetrates Concealment" does not grant omniscience.  Golden Bolt simply doesn't see everything.

Ar you familiar with photography and depth-of-field?  I think this plays a big part in how we model this sense-effect in action.

He can certainly concentrate and adjust the depth-of-field of his vision.  Perhaps even slowly calibrating it so that he's seeing the first person, then the second person, then the third...

Now, of course, if you don't actually care, then it's all good.  I spent a little time thinking about this at work (hey, my work is stupidly boring, so any diversion is a good thing).  But, on the other hand... if you've got an opinion, I want to make sure we're at least in the same chapter if not on the same page...

So, what are your thoughts?   How do you want it to work?
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:19, Wed 11 Mar 2020.

I don't actually care, just as long as it works.

In the case of needing to see through several dense objects to pinpoint what I want to find, how about making a perception check?

You know, I don't think I ever clarified the limits of Cassandra's broad-angle precognition well enough.

If she wouldn't be able to detect it with her remaining senses in the next few seconds by some hypothetical but real course of action, she can't perceive it at all. So sure, she isn't able to do anything that relies on color, including reading. But that also cuts her off from: anything higher than she could reach by climbing or jumping, anyone with movement speed comparable to hers who wants to hide from her, and anything on the other side of a barrier that would take her longer than that to cross, or that would be harmful enough to stop her.

Her time dilation gives her the effect of touch at ranges comparable to vision, and hearing beyond that, but a chainlink fence shortens her range by however long it would take her to climb—blindly. She can't tell what's on the other side of a storm door that she couldn't unlock somehow. If there's no scenario under her control that would make a chandelier drop into reach, she doesn't know it's there. She can't detect the other side of a gap too far for her to jump, and if it's further than she could clear with a routine action, her perceptions are clouded by the consequences of failing the leap, which means she doesn't know whether there's anything to leap to or not unless there's enough of an emergency she's willing to endure that to find out. Likewise, if there's a fire blocking the hallway, she can't tell what's on the other side of it unless she's prepared to experience the pain of running through the flames, potentially thousands of times at once.

It really doesn't make up completely for her missing sight. It's more like a burst area remote sensing with some very rough feedback from barriers of all kinds.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:16, Wed 11 Mar 2020.