BCG games where the whole PC Squad takes on a solo Superboss ended up being way more common than I expected, and Capstones are the only mechanic that lets Bosses keep up with 3+ PCs of a PL higher than 1 right out of the gate. They still need a little bit of help from things like additional Grunts, going for PLs 6 and above, or Component Rivals to combine with, but of these three options the only one that doesn't involve the creation of additional NPCs is going for a higher PL and granting them more Capstones.
With only 6 Capstones in the core rules, that's going to get repetitive fast. Fight a Boss with Energy Drain or Possession once and it's a challenging, different encounter from the norm. Fight a Boss with Energy Drain and Possession every Operation... And it's going to cross the line into being an annoying experience.
In BCZ I tried to add just enough Capstones to improve variety while including more GM advice and premade Grunt/Rival builds meant for accompanying Bosses without stealing the spotlight from them.
While the system is clearly not meant for a constant stream of 4v1 boss fights (or 3v1, 5v1, etc), I think that all the additions should be enough to run 10-15 operations that manage to stay fresh the whole way. What if you want more than 20? Probably not going to happen. The system is clearly not meant for Boss rushes and it can only be stretched so much.
Anyway, on to the capstones themselves!
All Becomes Dust
This ability is meant to represent some kind of entropic energy-draining aura, so in hindsight it should've also created Anti-Air versions of the Withering and Extreme Terrain to go with the default Anti-Ground ones. That would've made it way more powerful, yes, but it costs a ton of Energy to hit multiple PCs and touching a sniper with it is just plain unrealistic. Maybe I could tweak the Energy cost to rebalance the stronger version around it. Anyway, other than that slight flavor fail, I think it's a pretty solid Capstone that forces PCs to stay away or get wrecked, which is how I think close quarters Capstones should work.
My Final Masterpiece
The best and most known example I can think of for this ability is the third Lavos fight from Crono Trigger, but I'm sure you've seen this idea executed in other games as well. One interesting difference from the way this kind of Boss usually goes in BCG from videogames is that, while you'd think that the ability encourages aggressive Bosses protected by a tanky Grunt, it actually works better if you create a glass cannon Grunt and use the Boss to buff and heal them constantly. Without even trying to get creative, it is trivial to make a unit with Might 10 that spams a Hyper Launcher with You are in my Sights and gets resurrected every time you bring it down. If you focus the Boss, the Grunt gets more buffs and if you focus the Grunt it gets revived anyway! I think it makes more sense in-world for the big bad to beef up their pet and let it do the carrying, even if that isn't how the trope usually goes.
The Ultimate Shield
Grunts and Rivals are expected to have Active Defenses, but Bosses don't have those. This can end up making builds that rely on abilities that ignore Active Defenses (instead of attack bonuses) weaker than usual, so I opted to make Boss Upgrades like Adaptive Morphology and Afterimages count as Active Defenses. As I've already said, one of the problems with the Active Defenses that Bosses get is that they're only active after they've already taken a beating... And they're only at their best when they're near death. The Ultimate Shield solves this problem by being a Capstone and thus being active for the entire fight, making barrier-piercing attacks that much more valuable. I may have gone overboard, honestly, because +10 Defense is kind of a lot to punch through the old fashioned way. It's one of the most effective and easy to use Capstones in the game, forcing PCs to either ignore barriers or cause direct Damage if they want to win.
Tyrant of Lost Souls
Lastly, we have I Accept your Offering but as a passive ability. Usually the best way to deal with a Boss and its minions is to ignore the tanky Boss until you've dealt with the massed firepower of its allies. This punishes PCs that ignore the Boss with a bunch of free Damage. It is also one of the few abilities in the game that references Power Ratings directly, as it is the one variable that gives me (and GMs) the most control over how hard PCs get punished for ignoring the Boss. You set the number down and it never changes, no matter what happens in the middle of the Operation.
How effective is it, though? Well, assuming a Squad of 4 PCs of PL5, with two of them being equivalent to a Boss, that leaves a Power Rating of 24 to be distributed around other Grunts, Rivals and Bosses. Does 24 free Damage hurt a PL5 PC? Yes, but it's probably not punishing enough to force all of them to change their strategy, and a single PC with Threshold 7 can facetank it. Should the effect be 2x Power Rating? Power Rating + Tension? Well, either of these risks making the Boss undefeatable unless the PCs focus fire them immediately... But that's kind of the point, isn't it? And yet, arguably the ability is better off being too weak than too strong. See, a version that is too strong would force PCs to play exactly one way to beat the Boss, while the current and weaker version gives them a choice, and helps preserve a sense of agency. It's a complicated issue, basically, so I'm not going to call it a success but I don't think it is a total failure either.
And That's All For Now
And that's it, not just for Bosses but also all of Chapter 1! Woo! I hope that was enlightening. It certainly helped me take notice of a few issues that I hadn't noticed before. They say that you don't really understand something until you can explain it, and that is something I agree with.
I'm going to take a break from the weekly posts for a while. I may do Chapter 2 later, but I want to talk about some other things first. I'll be back with something substantial in the near future, hopefully before the end of the month.
Gimmick Out
Jul 8, 2018
Jul 1, 2018
BCZ Retrospective XXV: New Boss Weapons
One of the problems with Boss Weapons in BCG was repetitiveness. Between having a small armory, many Boss Weapons being engineered for very specific purposes and being unmaimable, most Bosses would stick to spamming the same attacks over and over. BCZ obviously expands the armory and adds a few general use Weapons that can slot into most Boss builds, but it is the addition of the Slow drawback that really changes everything.
Slow Weapons encourage Bosses to change things up, (or take turns off defending and the like, I guess) but also they're even stronger than regular Boss Weapons, which means that PCs have to play around them to avoid getting blasted to bits. So let's see how good they are:
Terrifying Attack
The more Units on your side, the more Tension bonuses you get, and the stronger your team will be the longer the battle goes. Terrifying Attack helps Bosses keep up with PCs by both denying Tension for one of them and doing extra Damage based on the current Tension, making it sort of like a Technique. It's very strong but needs to pass the Might Test in order to do anything, so it should be paired up with Caustic Touch.
Whirling Death
Tentacle Lash was already one of the better Boss Weapons. This is Tentacle Lash but better, making it arguably the best Boss Weapon in BCZ. Combining both of the Long Range Melee Bursts with Caustic Touch is like the most braindead easy way to make a threatening Boss and I don't think that is a bad thing. Sometimes you need to have stuff in your game that any GM can use to challenge their PCs with.
Corrosive Sting
I think this is the only Systems debuff in the entire game that you can inflict on someone else. The other Systems debuffs in the game are all negative effects from abilities that the PCs choose for themselves, such as Power Suit. Anyway, it doesn't hit super hard and only targets one PC with each attack, but it neuters many of the game's most powerful builds when it does connect. Works well with Boss builds that like to duel with (or Duel with, as in the rules term) one PC at a time.
Sonic Blades
The Threshold destruction effect is very hard to be on the receiving end of, and because this Weapon is a Beam it is going to land more often than most other Weapons of its ilk. Costs a lot of Energy, though. It's kind of crazy with Power of Despair and, if ignored in favor of other Enemies, the Boss might end up cleaving through the PCs and become unstoppable once the combo gets going.
Shadow Fist
The evil version of Radiant Fist! If Radiant Fist is the Shining Finger, then this is the Darkness Finger. A Darkness Finger that upgrades to Darkness Finger Sekiha Tenkyoken when Boosted, at that. It is absurdly powerful, so it is also Slow. I think this was only Slow when Boosted at first, but that made the unboosted version too good, so now there's more of a choice to using it. You will want to spend the 4 Energy the majority of the time, but not always, and not doing so doesn't make the Weapon useless because it still ignores Active Defenses. Probably my favorite in this batch.
Antimatter Shot
I needed a Slow non-Beam Shooting Weapon and was struggling to think of a buff that went well with Caustic Touch but wasn't overpowering. I settled on a gun that autorolled 10 because it technically doesn't increase the maximum Damage all that much, it only adds +2 or +4 (depending on how many Advantages are now being converted to Might bonuses) and removes the element of chance. Playtesting showed that it was okay, but didn't feel as good to use as other Slow Weapons, so it gained the bonus Damage. It might be a little too strong now, honestly, but it only attacks single targets and the range isn't that great, so it's not overpowering.
Magic Bullet
The way it is currently written, it is basically a worse Burst. On the plus side, because it is a worse Burst, I don't have to give it any drawbacks! With that said, I think this could have been a little bit stronger. Maybe just a bonus Advantage or Tension as a bonus to Damage or something. In flavor terms, this is directly taken from Hellsing. Is it in-genre? No, but it is cool. Little bit of trivia: The Clarke Foundation mini-setting was going to a lot more obviously based on Hellsing until I realized that it didn't have enough giant robots to justify doing that.
Gravity Blast
Ugh, this is so badly written that it has confused me when giving out rulings about how it is supposed to work. It is supposed to be a Blast with an effect like Ensnaring Trap, but you could interpret the text to say that it only affects abilities that grant flight for one Round which... It's just Antigravity, you goof! Also the spacing in the first sentence after the comma is wrong. Gah! This makes me mad! Which sucks because it's a pretty nifty ability otherwise. Good concept, bad templating.
Ultrabeam Cannon
Lines are cool, but what if you could make them... Wider? This Weapon behaves more like a Blast, because it will probably hit most (if not all) of the PCs. I've grown fond of these Wide Lines, I think they capture the feeling of something like a wave motion cannon or dragon breath better than Lines or Blasts do. It's strong, doesn't cost too much Energy and feels pretty cool, so I quite like it.
Assimilation Sweep
The last one of the ten to get made, because I had a really hard time trying to think of a big effect that deserved a high Energy cost and Slow without just doing tons of Damage from very far away. Could I have ignored one, two or all three of those tenets? Kinda. I wanted a gun that could be paired with Shadow Fist, I wanted Bosses to be able to alternate between one and the other, which meant making it Slow and the same Boost cost. Shadow Fist was already very strong though! Hence my apprehension at making a gun that was just "Shadow Fist but from 10+ Zones away." The idea I came up with was a healing effect, something that is fairly rare in the game (even for Bosses) and a debuff that would make it much harder for PCs to focus fire down the Boss. I wish I could remember the flavor inspiration, though.
The problem of repetitiveness was a big deal for Bosses in BCG, so while Powers and Upgrades only had six new abilities each (and Capstones only get four), the Boss Armory got doubled in size with ten new Weapons in total. Overall I'm very happy with how much the BCZ Boss Weapons add to the game.
Next: New Boss Capstones
Gimmick Out
Slow Weapons encourage Bosses to change things up, (or take turns off defending and the like, I guess) but also they're even stronger than regular Boss Weapons, which means that PCs have to play around them to avoid getting blasted to bits. So let's see how good they are:
Terrifying Attack
The more Units on your side, the more Tension bonuses you get, and the stronger your team will be the longer the battle goes. Terrifying Attack helps Bosses keep up with PCs by both denying Tension for one of them and doing extra Damage based on the current Tension, making it sort of like a Technique. It's very strong but needs to pass the Might Test in order to do anything, so it should be paired up with Caustic Touch.
Whirling Death
Tentacle Lash was already one of the better Boss Weapons. This is Tentacle Lash but better, making it arguably the best Boss Weapon in BCZ. Combining both of the Long Range Melee Bursts with Caustic Touch is like the most braindead easy way to make a threatening Boss and I don't think that is a bad thing. Sometimes you need to have stuff in your game that any GM can use to challenge their PCs with.
Corrosive Sting
I think this is the only Systems debuff in the entire game that you can inflict on someone else. The other Systems debuffs in the game are all negative effects from abilities that the PCs choose for themselves, such as Power Suit. Anyway, it doesn't hit super hard and only targets one PC with each attack, but it neuters many of the game's most powerful builds when it does connect. Works well with Boss builds that like to duel with (or Duel with, as in the rules term) one PC at a time.
Sonic Blades
The Threshold destruction effect is very hard to be on the receiving end of, and because this Weapon is a Beam it is going to land more often than most other Weapons of its ilk. Costs a lot of Energy, though. It's kind of crazy with Power of Despair and, if ignored in favor of other Enemies, the Boss might end up cleaving through the PCs and become unstoppable once the combo gets going.
Shadow Fist
The evil version of Radiant Fist! If Radiant Fist is the Shining Finger, then this is the Darkness Finger. A Darkness Finger that upgrades to Darkness Finger Sekiha Tenkyoken when Boosted, at that. It is absurdly powerful, so it is also Slow. I think this was only Slow when Boosted at first, but that made the unboosted version too good, so now there's more of a choice to using it. You will want to spend the 4 Energy the majority of the time, but not always, and not doing so doesn't make the Weapon useless because it still ignores Active Defenses. Probably my favorite in this batch.
Antimatter Shot
I needed a Slow non-Beam Shooting Weapon and was struggling to think of a buff that went well with Caustic Touch but wasn't overpowering. I settled on a gun that autorolled 10 because it technically doesn't increase the maximum Damage all that much, it only adds +2 or +4 (depending on how many Advantages are now being converted to Might bonuses) and removes the element of chance. Playtesting showed that it was okay, but didn't feel as good to use as other Slow Weapons, so it gained the bonus Damage. It might be a little too strong now, honestly, but it only attacks single targets and the range isn't that great, so it's not overpowering.
Magic Bullet
The way it is currently written, it is basically a worse Burst. On the plus side, because it is a worse Burst, I don't have to give it any drawbacks! With that said, I think this could have been a little bit stronger. Maybe just a bonus Advantage or Tension as a bonus to Damage or something. In flavor terms, this is directly taken from Hellsing. Is it in-genre? No, but it is cool. Little bit of trivia: The Clarke Foundation mini-setting was going to a lot more obviously based on Hellsing until I realized that it didn't have enough giant robots to justify doing that.
Gravity Blast
Ugh, this is so badly written that it has confused me when giving out rulings about how it is supposed to work. It is supposed to be a Blast with an effect like Ensnaring Trap, but you could interpret the text to say that it only affects abilities that grant flight for one Round which... It's just Antigravity, you goof! Also the spacing in the first sentence after the comma is wrong. Gah! This makes me mad! Which sucks because it's a pretty nifty ability otherwise. Good concept, bad templating.
Ultrabeam Cannon
Lines are cool, but what if you could make them... Wider? This Weapon behaves more like a Blast, because it will probably hit most (if not all) of the PCs. I've grown fond of these Wide Lines, I think they capture the feeling of something like a wave motion cannon or dragon breath better than Lines or Blasts do. It's strong, doesn't cost too much Energy and feels pretty cool, so I quite like it.
Assimilation Sweep
The last one of the ten to get made, because I had a really hard time trying to think of a big effect that deserved a high Energy cost and Slow without just doing tons of Damage from very far away. Could I have ignored one, two or all three of those tenets? Kinda. I wanted a gun that could be paired with Shadow Fist, I wanted Bosses to be able to alternate between one and the other, which meant making it Slow and the same Boost cost. Shadow Fist was already very strong though! Hence my apprehension at making a gun that was just "Shadow Fist but from 10+ Zones away." The idea I came up with was a healing effect, something that is fairly rare in the game (even for Bosses) and a debuff that would make it much harder for PCs to focus fire down the Boss. I wish I could remember the flavor inspiration, though.
The problem of repetitiveness was a big deal for Bosses in BCG, so while Powers and Upgrades only had six new abilities each (and Capstones only get four), the Boss Armory got doubled in size with ten new Weapons in total. Overall I'm very happy with how much the BCZ Boss Weapons add to the game.
Next: New Boss Capstones
Gimmick Out
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