Earlier, we examined the baseline, simple miracles and the Qualities that comprise them. Next, we went over Hyperstats and Hyperskills\u2014things normal people can do, at abnormal levels. Between these categories, you can do an awful lot of superhero modeling.<\/p>\n
But maybe you want a little more flair. Maybe plain vanilla is no longer enough, and you want the whole sundae. The nuts-and-whipped-cream, in this metaphor, are Flaws and Extras.<\/p>\n
Flaws make your power limited or a hassle in some way, while Extras make it more awesome in one way or another. Because there\u2019s a point economy to make things interesting (and to maintain the polite fiction of \u201cgame balance\u201d) Flaws make powers cheaper, and Extras make them cost more.<\/p>\n Wild Talents<\/em> has a lot of Extras and Flaws to simulate stuff from comics (or just things we thought were neat), so the list can look pretty boggling. But let\u2019s break them down into some sub-categories:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Making a flamboyantly personal defense somehow seems less neato than a signature attack. You can amp up your defenses by stringing on contingent powers, but that\u2019s scheduled for Lesson Five. If you just want to not be a creampuff, get Hard Dice in some of the pre-built cafeteria miracles (Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Immunity) or just a load of Hyperdodge.<\/p>\n That big list of Extras and Flaws for Attacks. They\u2019re all fairly straightforward, and trying to find a way to make an attack extremely effective and still affordable by balancing Flaws and Extras can keep you entertained for some time, if that\u2019s your bag.<\/p>\n Augment, Duration and Variable Effect aren\u2019t quite as bad as they might seem, but like anything that makes radical changes, they require some explanation. That\u2019s for Lessons Four and a bit of Five. For now, internalize that these are not the magic keys to min-maxing that let people who understand them create Mighty Thor on a Luke Cage budget. They\u2019re fun and tricky, but if you don\u2019t feel like using them,\u00a0you\u2019re not<\/em>missing out<\/em>.<\/p>\n A lot of these Extras and Flaws are simple enough that you can read their description and decide if you want to work them into your budget. If you\u2019re looking for a way to make a non-combat power cheaper, the go-to Flaws are Go Last or Depleted. Put Willpower Bid on a pool with 10d in it for a gamble you\u2019re unlikely to lose. Use Controlled Effect to show off and Native Power to keep your toys from getting taken away from you. Easy.<\/p>\n Now we get to the mid-range Extras and Flaws that really shine if you have a bit of coaching. The Extras in this category are: Booster, Go First, High Capacity, No Upward Limit, Power Capacity, Speeding Bullet and Spray. The relevant Flaws are: Focus, No Physical Change and Reduced Capacities. Like I\u2019ve said, you can do\u00a0just fine<\/em> without touching these, but if you\u2019ve read this far you might as well get them unpacked for you.<\/p>\n This means Power Capacity, High Capacity, No Upward Limit, Booster, Reduced Capacities, Self Only, and Touch Only.<\/p>\n Capacities, as you recall from Lesson One, consist of Mass, Speed, Range, Self and Touch. The Flaws \u201cSelf Only\u201d and \u201cTouch Only\u201d simply mean that you\u2019re entitled to a free Capacity on an Attack or Useful power, and you\u2019re not using it. Maybe you want your Useful power to be \u2018healing\u2019 and you only want it to affect yourself. Self Only makes it cheaper (and therefore lets you buy a lot more of it, or put on an Extra like Engulfs).<\/p>\n Power Capacity is the one that puts an entirely new dimension on a power. If you add Range to a Defensive power, you can suddenly use it to save other people. Putting mass on a ranged Attack isn\u2019t complicated, it just means that, in addition todamage<\/em>, the target also gets relocated. But mixing Range and Mass with Useful powers gets you into some interesting territory, where you can look at a building and turn its surface into oxygen (to borrow an example from\u00a0PROGENITOR<\/em>). It\u2019s expensive, but powerful. But remember that if you don\u2019t have Attack with your Useful power, it won\u2019t do direct damage. So in our buildings-to-oxygen example, it would happen rather slowly. That\u2019s a bit of a blurry case though: You can make a very fine argument that \u2018being turned to oxygen\u2019 is \u2018damage\u2019 for a building. High Capacity only matters for mixed Capacity powers, and keeps one Capacity at a high level no matter what you\u2019re doing with it. Don\u2019t worry about it unless (1) you\u2019re mixing Capacities and (2) you really care about one being big. It\u2019s a specialized tool.<\/p>\n The rest of these Extras and Flaws just change how\u00a0much<\/em> Capacity a power has, based on that chart on page 112 of the\u00a0Wild Talents Essential Edition<\/em> or page 111 of the big\u00a0Wild Talents <\/em>hardback. If you can turn matter to solid gold, you may not want to change much (and depress the market), so Reduced Capacity gets you alchemy affordably. Booster and No Upward Limit are similar ways to improve Capacity. No Upward Limit lets you do it on special occasions by spending Willpower, and (per the name) is pretty much unlimited. But Booster is free and multiplies the Capacity by 10 every time you take it. (If you\u2019re curious, a super-speed power with 4-6d in its pool needs to take Booster thirteen times to get to the speed of light.)<\/p>\n Including Speeding Bullet, Go First, Spray, and No Physical Change.<\/p>\n We tried to keep it so that there aren\u2019t any cheesy ways to inexpensively make your attacks really effective, but\u2026 if there\u00a0are<\/em> cheesy ways, they\u2019re probably this trio of Extras and this Flaw.<\/p>\n Speeding Bullet and Go First won\u2019t help you out against armor, and they\u2019re the reason that armor is so common. Speeding Bullet simply means that people below a certain Stat level can\u2019t avoid it (unless, as mentioned, they have passive defenses) because it happens too fast or is simply overwhelming. (Try it with mind control if you want everyone with normal stats to do whatever your character says. That does kind of make you a supervillain though.) Go First cheaply amps up the timing of your actions without making them more effective, but it helps you knock dice out of other people\u2019s sets without letting them do the same to you.<\/p>\n No Physical Change is a versatile way to cheapen powers if you don\u2019t care about tangible results. It\u2019s particularly good for illusions, psychic \u2018mind clouding\u2019 and similar stuff. Keep in mind that while -1 per die doesn\u2019t look like much, if you only want the illusion of turning into a sentient flying saucer, you don\u2019t have to buy all the Extras and Capacities you\u2019d need to\u00a0really<\/em> turn into a sentient flying saucer.\u00a0 That said, if you want to create the illusion of fire bolts that explode and sear, you\u2019d still need to pay for the Area and Burn extras in order to fool people into believing they were at the ground zero and are suffering ongoing damage.<\/p>\n Focus is the Flaw so complicated it has its own brood of subordinate Flaws and Extras. It\u2019s the element so specialized that it\u2019s getting its own separate heading in this article, alone and insolent. It must be something really mind-blowing, right?<\/p>\n No. It just means the power is in a device. Green Lantern\u2019s ring, Thor\u2019s hammer, the Batmobile, something like that. That\u2019s\u00a0all focus is<\/em>. For most uses, just build the power you want, slap \u201cFocus\u201d on it and call it a day. The Extras and Flaws under it? Sure, if you want to lovingly detail the benefits and perils of this version of Iron Man armor, go for it. But they aren\u2019t necessary, and if you don\u2019t care about them you don\u2019t need them.<\/p>\n Even if you do, they\u2019re pretty self-evident. Make the power a focus. Change the focus with the Extras and Flaws until you reach a balance you can stand between \u201cwhat it does\u201d and \u201cwhat it costs.\u201d Then stop. In fact, that\u2019s pretty good advice forWild Talents<\/em> power building in general: Get it to where it\u2019s good enough and stop picking at it. You may be absolutely on target with the cheap, straightforward, unmodified Qualities.\u00a0 You may get the character you want with Hyperstats and Hyperskills.<\/p>\n But maybe that\u2019s\u00a0not<\/em> quite enough for you. Maybe you want tremendous versatility and feel like you understand the system well enough to\u00a0really<\/em> pop the hood and start tinkering. If that\u2019s the case, read on. The next topic covers Augment and Variable Effect, which are the ORE equivalent of genetic engineering.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/Wild-Talents-extras-flaws.jpg\" "\\"Wild-Talents-extras-flaws\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nLesson Three: Flaws, Extras and You<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n <\/td>\n \n \n \n Mainly Applies To Attacks So Don\u2019t Worry About It Unless You Want Your Attack To Be More Fiddly<\/em><\/td>\n Area, Burn, Deadly, Disintegrate, Electrocuting, Non-Physical, Penetration, Traumatic<\/td>\n Limited Damage, Scattered Damage<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mainly Applies To Defense And Can Be Cheated Around Easily<\/em><\/td>\n Hardened Defense, Interference<\/td>\n Armored Defense<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n So Complicated They Get Their Own Article<\/em><\/td>\n Augment, Duration, Endless, Permanent, Variable Effect<\/td>\n Always On, Attached, Automatic, If\/Then<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n So Simple They Don\u2019t Need More Explaining<\/em><\/td>\n Controlled Effect, Daze, Engulf, Native Power, No Physics, No Upward Limit, On Sight, Radius, Subtle<\/td>\n Backfires, Base Will Cost, Delayed Effect, Depleted, Direct Feed, Exhausted, Fragile, Full Power Only, Go Last, Horrifying, Limited Width, Locational, Loopy, Mental Strain, Obvious, One Use, Slow, Uncontrollable, Willpower Bid, Willpower Cost, Willpower Investment<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Cheating Around Defensive Extras and Flaws<\/h3>\n
Amping Attacks<\/h3>\n
The Complexity Ghetto<\/h3>\n
The Simple Stuff<\/h3>\n
The Rest of Them<\/h2>\n
Capacity Factors<\/h3>\n
Spoiler Moves<\/h3>\n
Focus<\/h2>\n