After determining the Size of your Base or Vehicle, you can outfit it. Buying resources and equipment costs Character Points, and these points count toward the overall cost of the Base or Vehicle.
Any Base or Vehicle equipment must be self- powered; that is, it must normally cost no END, be bought to 0 END, use Charges, or have an Endur- ance Reserve. It’s possible to have a single large Endurance Reserve for an entire Base or Vehicle; this would simulate the power plant or batteries possessed by many Bases and Vehicles.
GENERAl ABIlITIES
A Base or Vehicle can have a Power or Talent that affects all of it. (Generally, Bases and Vehicles shouldn’t be allowed to buy Perks, though the GM can permit this if appropriate.) For these all-inclu- sive abilities, the builder should simply buy the Power with appropriate Advantages and Limita- tions. Since the Base or Vehicle is considered a single “character,” you don’t have to buy a Power that affects all of it (typically a Defense Power or Life Support) with the Area Of Effect Advantage, nor must you buy such Powers as Usable On
Others (inhabitants and passengers can use them
automatically).
Life Support is one of the Powers most frequently bought for a Base or Vehicle. It often takes the -½ Limitation Costs Endurance, meaning it must be turned on and has to be hooked up to an Endurance Reserve (or some other power source).
You may also purchase special defenses such as Hardened defenses for a Vehicle or Base. A Base or Vehicle could even have Desolidification or Invisibility, although these should only be bought in special cases. Of course, the GM has final say as to what can and cannot go into a Base or Vehicle; not all Powers will be appropriate (for example, buying Mental Defense for a Vehicle or Base would require a good justification).
COMPUTERS
You can install a computer in a Base or Vehicle. Determine the Computer’s cost separately using the standard rules (see 6E1 102), then add it to the cost of the Base or Vehicle after you calculate that cost.
Example: Defender buys a 100-point Computer
for his Base (costing 100 /5 = 20 points). When he finishes building his Base, he’ll add this 20 points onto the Base’s final cost.
PERSONNEl
A Base or Vehicle can have personnel associ- ated with its operation — workers, guards, chauf- feurs, pets, even robots. Build personnel with the Follower rules. As with Computers, calculate the cost of the Followers separately and then add it to the cost of the Base or Vehicle after you calculate that cost.
Example: Defender has spent 120 points on his
Base so far, and would now like to buy some guards for it. He buys 64 agents built on 100 Character Points (costing 100/5 = 20 points, x64 = 30 points; total 50 points). When Defender finishes calculating the cost of his Base, he’ll add 50 points to it.
VEHIClES
Bases sometimes have their own Vehicles. In this case, calculate the cost of the Vehicle(s) and then add it to the cost of the Base after you calcu- late that cost.
lABS AND SKIllS
A Vehicle or Base can have laboratories. Labs help characters do research and improve certain Skills, provide a way to analyze data about myste- rious events, and so forth. Don’t let the term “lab” confuse you; they’re not restricted to the hard sciences. A Base could have a “lab” stocked with Disguise equipment, gymnasium equipment for practicing Acrobatics, or lockpicking tools and practice locks.
To build a lab, simply buy the appropriate Skill — this indicates what the lab is designed for. This Skill can be a Familiarity for poor labs, or a normal Skill for better ones. When a character uses the lab, its roll acts as a Complementary Skill Roll to his own roll. Because labs don’t have any Characteristics, the Base roll for a lab Skill is always 9-. Of course, the lab only helps the character with his Skill; if he doesn’t have the Skill in the first place the lab does him no good. (Most people couldn’t make heads or tails out of the equipment in Einstein’s laboratory, for example.) All labs require a minimum of two cubic meters of space; many need much more than that.
Example: Because he’s the one who has to
design the Base, Defender decides he’s going to build himself an electronics lab. The cost for an electronics lab is 3 Character Points; this gives a lab with an Electronics roll of 9-. Defender buys +8 with the skill; this costs 16 points (total of 19 points). The lab now has a 17- Electronics Roll that serves as a Complementary Skill to anyone doing Electronics research there.
Computers and AIs may also be given control over the laboratories, though of course the Computer or AI must have the requisite Skill to use it. The Computer needs either Extra Limbs, a robot, or a person in the lab to help it use the facility.
CEllS
You can build cells in Bases or Vehicles to hold enemies or villains. You build them with extra PD/ED using the Partial Coverage Limita- tion described above. You may also apply unusual defenses or Advantages to the walls to hold unusual prisoners — Cannot Be Escaped With Teleportation to stop characters with Teleporta- tion, Mental Defense to keep mentalists from using their powers effectively, Affects Desolidi- fied to keep Desolidified characters from simply walking out, or Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing) so that it’s airtight (meaning characters with Shrinking can’t escape through the cracks). All of these Powers and Advantages can also take the Partial Coverage Limitation to reflect the size of the cell(s).
POWER
Bases can hook up to the normal power grid for no point cost; this provides enough power to run all normal lighting, ventilation, and laboratory needs. If the Base is outside normal power sources (like on the Moon), it has internal generators for these purposes. However, if the Base has to power weapons or other equipment built with Powers, it needs an Endurance Reserve.
SENSORS
You can buy external sensors for a Base as Clairsentience with the appropriate Enhanced Senses. Of course, if no one monitors the sensors, they won’t help much (although a Computer or AI can serve as an effective monitor). External Sensors are usually bought with Limitations (such as a Required Roll) to reflect imperfect coverage; the GM may require this.
Buy internal sensors the same way, but they can take the Partial Coverage Limitation, if not all of the Base is under surveillance.
Sensors can function as security systems, and may be disabled with a successful Security Systems roll.
TRAINING FACIlITIES
Many Bases have training facilities where characters can practice Skills and other abilities. These range from a combat practice ground and jousting field at a castle, to the “danger room” of a superhero team’s secret headquarters, to the holo- gymnasium on a space station.
Training facilities may offer some or all of the following benefits:
1. they allow characters to buy off vulnerabilities and susceptibilities, and possibly other Complica- tions as well. A character can expose himself to the attacks and substances he takes (extra) damage from and build up tolerance and resistance. Of course, buying off a Complication requires the expenditure of Experience Points and the GM’s permission.
Similarly, a character could train to overcome (i.e., buy off) Limitations on his Powers. For example, a character whose RKA Only Works
Against Metal (-1) could work at expanding his
range of effect. He might go from only affecting metals, to affecting any inorganic substance (-½) to any nonliving substance (-¼), to anything or anyone.
2. learning new skills and abilities. A character can use training facilities to learn things from his comrades or on his own. For example, if one of the characters knows WF: Staff, he can use the Training Facility to teach another character how to use that weapon.
Practicing in a Training Facility is a particularly good justification for buying Combat Skill Levels (representing intense practice with a particular attack or group of attacks) or the Teamwork Skill (representing a group of characters working together to hone their battlefield tactics and ability to Coordinate). The GM might even allow a char- acter to buy extra defenses or CSLs to represent training in resisting or counteracting particular types of attacks.
3. learning about other characters’ abilities,
strengths, and weaknesses. By observing other characters as they train, a character may learn valuable information about them. What he learns, and how he learns it, depends upon his ability to perceive things, the situation, how well the other character hides things, and the GM’s discretion.
4. learning about different environments. By experiencing other environments — such as zero gravity, vacuum, underwater, high altitude, extreme heat, extreme cold, different atmospheres, or different gravities — a character can learn how to overcome the problems they pose. This is a good justification for buying the Environmental
Movement Talent.
volume 2: combat and adventuring n chapter seven 193
EQUIPMENT
Bases and Vehicles can also have equipment, ranging from weaponry, to luxury items, to communication devices.
Equipment is usually bought with a Focus Limitation unless it’s intrinsically a part of the Base or Vehicle. All Vehicle equipment receives an extra -½ Limitation in addition to the normal value of the Focus Limitation — it’s a Bulky, but mobile, Focus. However, don’t halve a Vehicle’s DCV for carrying it; that effect only applies if a character detaches the item from the Vehicle and carries it himself. All Base equipment receives an extra -1 Limitation in addition to the normal value of the Focus Limitation (i.e., it’s an Immobile Focus).
Characters can apply the 5-point doubling rule (6E1 181) to Base and Vehicle equipment.
Example: Defender wants to install some defen-
sive weaponry in his Base. He buys a Blast 10d6 with the Limitations Obvious Accessible Focus (including an extra -1 for being an Immobile Focus) and 16 Charges. The cost for one blaster is 50 / (1+1+1+0) = 17 points. He decides to buy 16 of the blasters; this costs an additional +20 points. The total cost for 16 blasters is 17+20 = 37 points.
Sometimes a character can destroy a Vehicle’s or Base’s equipment without destroying the Vehicle itself or the Base’s walls. Accessible Foci are outside the PD/ED of the Vehicle or Base; they get the normal defense for a Focus (see 6E1 376). Inaccessible Foci, on the other hand, get both their own defenses and the defenses of the Vehicle or Base. Obvious Foci are recognizable for what they are and the function they perform. Inobvious Foci are hidden or resemble ordinary parts of the Vehicle or Base.
Some Vehicle and Base equipment is intended for the use of the occupants, not the Vehicle or Base itself. For example, a space station or starship might have a Teleportation Platform so people can easily enter and exit it. Obviously this device doesn’t allow the Base or Vehicle itself to Tele- port — it’s for the use of people. Similarly, the occupants of a Vehicle or Base may be able to use its sensors, weapons, and other equipment instead or, or in addition to, the Vehicle or Base itself being able to do so.
liMiteD arc oF Fire
You can buy Vehicle weaponry (and sometimes Base weaponry as well) with a special Limitation:
Limited Arc Of Fire. A weapon with a Limited Arc
Of Fire cannot fire in all directions; instead, it can only cover certain areas. The value of the Limita- tion depends on the size of the arc and whether the weapon can only fire on targets on the same horizontal level as itself.