Super Powers and Skills in Enforcers

Art by Christine Mansfield

For a post about super powers, I wanted to present interior artwork from Enforcers that displayed the use of super powers.  Unfortunately, I used the only such artwork for the last post.  There's somebody falling off a skateboard (p. 64), two guys with weird ears building or repairing some device (p. 43), someone looking at a rabbit (p. 35), a ninja holding a rock (p. 52), but no other display of superpowers.  A review of Enforcers in White Wolf Magazine #11 (August 1988) is not appreciative of the artwork:  “The interior art will hopefully be replaced in a future third edition.”  Ouch.

One of the selling points of Enforcers is, “A complete magic system.”  Actually, the magic system in DC Heroes Role Playing Game does not seem incomplete in comparison.  For fifteen creation points an Enforcers character can acquire the 'Magic' power.  If so, no other power can be purchased and there is an upper limit for characteristics other than Intelligence and Comliness.  With Magic, a beginning character has six spells.  Each additional spell costs three creation points earned as experience.  Enforcers offers nineteen magic spells; some which are to be expected (such as 'Shield' and 'Scry') and others which are unusual.  For instance, the victim of the 'Deathmare' spell...

...is instantly teleported through a dimensional gate where he will face his most hated and feared enemy in mortal combat – actually it is a magical construct with his personality and attributes.  The GM should roll 1d6 to determine how long the battle may last.  If the victim defeats his enemy, he will immediately reappear back into the real world.  If there is no victor before the spell runs out, the victim will also reappear.  Should his enemy win, the victim's body will reappear.

Otherwise, most of the powers can each be a spell.  Among the powers excluded from being used as spells, there are Cybernetic Replacement, Mutation, and Invulnerability.

The 'Animal Powers' super power (not usable as a spell) allows a characters to purchase statistics and powers at half cost.  Each animal type has a limited set of statistics and powers which can be purchased thus.  For example, the Arachnid set includes:  Strength, Agility/Dexterity, Spider Climb, Entanglement, Invulnerability.  Each creation point used must come from a weakness which can never be bought off with experience.

“Willpower is an optional ability score that starts at 0 when a character is created and can only be increased by the spending of creation points,” we read.  (Willpower is also not usable as a spell.)  This power acts as a back-up saving throw.  When a character fails a saving throw, the character can roll against his or her Willpower.  If successful, it is as though the original save was successful.  This costs an amount of energy equal to the result of the successful Willpower roll.

Invisibility has a creation point cost of five.  However, for seven points a character can have Non-Detection:

Characters using this power can't be detected by audio, visual or electronic means.  All but the strongest of magical means will also fail.  Danger sense and detective score will not discover someone using non-detection.  This form of invisibility shuts off after the user takes any hostile action.

The Energy Ground power allows characters to shunt 95% of energy “to ground.”  We learn, “This power on works on 'pure' energy forms –  e.g. electricity, lightning, non-magical force fields, power blast, and heat based sources.”  Also, “This power will not work against magic, light/laser. cold, or other non-energy attacks.”  I guess in the Enforcers universe, light isn't energy and lasers aren't associated with heat.

Energy Vampire “is more than just an offensive power: it is the ability to absorb life energy from others in order to restore your own!”  Like a traditional vampire, an energy vampire can turn into a bat and has no reflection in mirrors.  Additionally, an energy vampire takes only half-damage from non-metallic physical attacks (but “double damage from metal based attacks”).

Lycanthropic Immunity might as well be called Lycanthropy (or better yet Zoanthropy).  With this power, “characters are able to change shape from a normal human into a form that is part animal and part human.”  When in (quasi-)animal form, the character “is completely immune to HTH and projectile damage unless the damage is inflicted by a magic or silver weapon.”  However, “when an attack they are immune to reduces them below zero hit points...it takes the body a few moments to repair itself to the point where it can function.”  Wait, why would a character lose any hit points if he or she is immune to a given attack.  At any rate, “Lead bullets may embed themselves in the character, but will cause no damage unless they are not removed by the character before returning to human form.”  I strongly suspect it may be possible someone other than the character could remove the bullets.  Lastly, “Please note that Lycanthropes MAY NOT be Energy Vampires!”

Regarding skills, “The player and the GM should reach an agreement on just what skills any given character may have.”  The normal number of skills a character may have is three; however, in special situations the GM can allow a beginning character to have up to five skills.  After character creation, more skills can be acquired via experience; however, “The maximum number of skills a character can have is 6.”  Enforcers describes 42 skills, but the list “is not exhaustive, and entirely new skills can be created if the player and GM agree on the descriptions.”  Skills in Enforcers are usually more encompassing than skills in other role-playing games.  For instance, the 'Automated Systems' skill allows familiarity “with the complex software and control systems necessary to do such things as spacecraft navigation, environmental control, and nuclear power plant operations.”  'Thief' provides “a 75% chance of accomplishing any activity related to stealing.”  Such activities include (but are not limited to):  Car Theft, Lock Picking, Wall Climbing, Pickpocketing, Bypassing Alarms, Spotting and Bypassing Surveillance Equipment, Fencing Stolen Merchandise, Pursuit, Evasion, as well as Breaking and Entering.

Art by Christine Mansfield

Combat in Enforcers

Art by Christine Mansfield

In Enforcers, combat transpires in a series of fifteen second rounds.  A round consists of 75 'counts' lasting one-fifth of a second each.  A 'Combat Initiative Chart' (shown below) is used to record the characters' initiative scores in a given round.  Note that the footer gives “permission to photocopy or cut out only this chart from the book.”  No such permission is granted regarding the blank character sheets printed on the inner front and back covers.

Interestingly, according to Lawrence Schick's Heroic Worlds, 21st Century Games sold a “Delux Initiative Set” for Enforcers (“Plasticized initiative chart, reusable, and three-hole punched for insertion in a binder” – also included a grease pencil); this product is not listed on RPGGeek.com.  Anyway...

A character’s initiative is calculated by rolling 1d10 and adding this number to the character’s ADX score.  If the character has the super power Heightened Reflexes [sic], this needs to be added as well.

Once a character’s initiative is determined, the number equal to the character’s initiative should be located and marked on the Initiative Chart with the character’s initials.

There is no power with the name Heightened Reflexes; presumably, the author meant Super Reflexes (each level of which adds 10 to initiative).

When combat begins, the GM will start in row 1, column 1 of the Initiative Chart and begin counting columns to the right.  When the end of one row is reached, the GM will start counting in row 2, column 1 and continue to the right…

Characters receive offensive actions in the column where their initiative score is plotted, in the row where their initiative score is plotted, and in all rows higher.  For example, a character with an initiative score of 35 receives an offensive action in column 11 of rows 1, 2, and 3.

This process is reminiscent of the combat system in Villains & Vigilantes (although V&V does not employ a chart):  turns last fifteen seconds, initiative is determined by adding 1d10 to Agility, and a character is entitled to an action for every fifteen 'phases' of his or her initiative.

Let’s see how Enforcers initiative plays out.  We have two characters:  Sloth-Man (with an ADX of 4) and Captain Hotfoot (with an ADX of 30 and three levels of Super Reflexes).  The result of the initiative roll for both characters is 5.  For this round of combat, Sloth-Man has an initiative score of 9; the score for Captain Hotfoot is 65.  Captain Hotfoot has five offensive actions this round but Sloth-Man has only one.

Combat begins.  We start at row 1, column 1 and begin counting to the right:  15 ...14 ...13 ...12 ...11 ...10 ...9 – Sloth-Man may now commit an offensive action 0.8 seconds before Captain Hotfoot is permitted to do the same this round.  [Insert sad trombone]

Well, the authors stated that Enforcers is “the easiest, fastest, most flexible super-power role-playing game.”  They made no claim regarding logic or common sense.

The amount of damage that a character inflicts in hand-to-hand combat is based on carrying capacity.  “Table 5 presents the meleé damage table,” we read, “look up your character's carrying capacity and this will give you the character's meleé DAM#.”  This seems reasonable.  Given below is the “formula [the authors] used to calculate the values on the meleé damage table.”

CC DAM#X = (DAM#X × 100) + (CC DAM#X – 1) + (DAM#X³ × LOG{DAM#X} × 0.7)

Apparently, the authors put a great deal of thought into this ...or did they?  Here is the first portion of Table 5:

Carrying capacity (in pounds) is determined thus:  (STR/10)³ x W* x 25.  A person weighing 180 lbs. and possessing a Strength of 11 (i.e., average) has a carrying capacity of 133 lbs.  According to the table, that means the person would have a DAM# of 2.

In Enforcers, there is no table describing meleé weapons.  Instead, “Striking weapons do damage based on their weight.”  Specifically, we are told, “Find the object's weight on [Table 5], and the DAM# given is amount of damage done by the object.”  A crow bar weighs about five pounds, so the DAM# would be 1.  This means a normal, unarmed person inflicts twice the amount of damage that a person wielding a crow bar would inflict.  [Insert sad trombone]  At least, “Objects with sharp edges used as slashing weapons will do triple this amount.”

A critical hit results when an attack roll is equal to or less than 10% of the attack's adjusted basic chance to hit (ABCTH).  Should the ABCTH exceed one hundred, “the maximum legal percentage” is ten percent.  To determine hit location, we are advised to “please roll 2d6 and consult the proper column in Table 11.”

Um, what column would that be?  When Table 11 is reprinted in the back of the book, we see that – from left to right – the columns are:  front, back, side, and below.  Each critical hit has a severity from one to six; determined by rolling 1d6.  This suggests six levels of severity; however, such is not the case.  There are actually three levels of severity, each having a separate table:  light (severity 1 - 3), medium (severity 4 - 5), and extreme (severity 6).  For the neck location, the effect of light severity is 2 × normal damage and “target loses next action.”  The effect of medium severity is 4 × normal damage and “15% paralyzed otherwise lose next action.”  Finally, the effect of extreme severity is 6 × normal damage, “20% dead, 50% paralyzed, [otherwise] target is stunned for rest of round.”

For an attack, rolling in excess of the 'fumble factor' means the character has fumbled.  Fumble factor equals 89 + (ABCTH/10), but a “roll of 00 is always a fumble regardless of the character's fumble factor.”  There are three fumble tables, each requiring a roll of 1d10:  Hand-To-Hand, Ranged Attack, and Missile Weapon.  A roll of '2' on the hand-to-hand table means, “Strained arm, –40% to hit for rest of round.”  A roll of '1' on the ranged attack table indicates, “Distracted, save vs. Intelligence on d% or lose next offensive action.”  A roll of '3' on the missile weapon table indicates, “Missile arc to [sic] high ...Hits ceiling for normal damage and may hit a random target on the ground.”

The Fauna of Wizards' World

Art by Tracy Cameron Mansfield; “Humor” by ?

As mentioned last week, there is no setting description in Wizards' World.  Yet there are clues to the flavor and tone of the campaign(s) from which the game developed.  Humor – or what could charitably be described as such – is in evidence.  For instance, the game's section on coins makes reference to “quatloos,” a thousand of which equal the value of a copper piece.  The descriptions of original creatures tend to offer the most insight into the Wizards' World 'playtest' environment.

All Wizards' World creatures have a 'profession' (or more than one profession) and a range of 'levels' to represent their ability.  For example, weasels are thieves of first or second level; war horses are warriors of second through fifth level.  A creature's experience value is determined by its level; specifically, “the sum of the squares of its levels times 100.”  So, an amethyst dragon having two warrior levels and two wizard levels is worth 800 experience points.

“Humor” also appears in the creature descriptions.  For instance, “Valley Giants are often seen wandering about saying things like 'bitchin´ to the max' and 'like, totally'.”  (Valley Giants are “jesters” of ninth to sixteenth level.)  Also, “Rhasti are similar in appearance to weasels...[they] are peculiar in that no matter what language they use, and even if they communicate telepathically, they have a British accent.”  Additionally, “A place guarded by a troll that will accept bribes is often call [sic] a 'troll booth'.”

Wizards' World includes some standard fantasy standards like orcs (first to second level warriors), werewolves (sixth through ninth level attackers), and succubi (third though ninth level wizards / second level black knights).  There are also recognizable creatures with new names and cosmetic changes:  azara (second to fifth level warriors) are “like lions, except they are dark blue in colour,” rogoroth (sixth to ninth level attackers) are giant eagles, and zilman (first through third level warriors) are effectively D&D troglodytes.

Here are some odd creatures original to Wizards' World:

Krang “appear as men, except their clothing is lighter.”  They are warriors of sixth through fifteenth level and can teleport anywhere at will.

Yaka “closely resemble rabbits” but have the “ability to possess others.”  They have one to three levels as wizards and one to three levels as spies.  If a yaka successfully possesses a player character, it “will have the unfortunate player [sic] attack his own party” for the ultimate purpose of acquiring the party's treasure.  Possession only lasts for a number of minutes but, evidently, “they retain all knowledge that the victim had.”  Yaka have an intelligence range of 16 - 20, in excess of the 'normal' intelligence level of the player character races.  Would such entities be satisfied with treasure?  What use do they have for it?

Wolverenes are wolverines that can “fire a bolt of electricity from their bodies.”

“Tasnics seem to have no aim in life other than to have fun and collect treasure.”  They are wizards of second through nineteenth level and – even though they “can transform into humanoid form at will” – tasnics usually appear as “furry winged serpents.”  Among their special abilities, tasnics have “eye beams” and can “view reality.”

“Epsilons are bull-like creatures with red horns and eyes and black fur.”  They “can fire green colored bolts of energy that inflict...damage and cause paralyzation.”

Vexaxaxi (sing. vexaxax) “look like green gorillas with tusks.”  They have eight to twelve levels as attackers and nine to sixteen levels as assassins.  “They are supremely designed to deal out death.”  Not only do “vexaxaxi have retractable fangs that hold...poison,” they “can fire a death bolt from a single horn growing out the back of their skulls.”

The Wizards' World Difference

Art by Tracy Cameron Mansfield

Wizards' World does not offer any detailed setting information, although there are glimpses into the campaign(s) of Dave Silvera and/or Doug Krull.  For instance, Madradox and the Eldritch Field or the Earth King that rules the Metamorphic Dwarves.  Essentially, the game is a platform for Silvera and Krull to offer alternatives to D&D rules; alternatives that go beyond an extra characteristic and some new races and classes.

The game presents the familiar array of thief abilities along with the addition of 'Spot Hidden Item', 'Recognize Value', and 'Estimate Value'.  Thieves, of course, have all of the thief abilities; scouts, assassins, destroyers, jesters, and spies each have some thief abilities (spies also have the additional abilities of 'Disguise' and 'Mimic').  Rather than a measured progression per level, professions with thief abilities receive a number of percentage points per level to allocate among the abilities as the player sees fit.

Like thief abilities, combat is also resolved with percentile rolls.  All characters have a 25% proficiency with every weapon, possibly modified by a dexterity based “To Hit Adjustment.”  Professions with a focus on combat can improve their ability through experience.  Such professions have experience “intervals” in addition to experience levels.  For example, warriors have an interval of one hundred experience points for the first two levels; “[w]arriors gain a one percent increase in their to hit probability with the weapon of their choice at each interval.”  Professions (such as Wizard and Thief) without 'fighting ability' simply do not improve their ability to use weapons, ever.

Experience, by the way, is earned by killing.  In addition, combat-oriented professions gain experience by causing damage, spellcasters gain experience from casting spells, and thief-like professions gain experience by successfully performing thief abilities.  Finally, “[t]he GM may wish to award experience for other accomplishments as well.”

Armor “absorbs” damage and reduces dexterity and agility by a like amount.  For example, “Chain Armour” has an absorption value of 4 and causes a dexterity and agility penalty of 4.  A character's agility can provide a defense adjustment that modifies an opponent’s chance to hit.  Low agility causes a negative defense adjustment which increases an opponent's chance; high agility, vice versa.  According to the example of combat, the destroyer profession provides a bonus to defense, but I do not see this detailed in the destroyer profession description.

With regard to magic, there are spell points and spell learning points.  Spell points are spent when attempting to cast a spell.  First through fourth level spells cost one point to attempt to cast; higher level spells cost more.  For a particular casting, an “aspect” of the spell (such as range or duration – but not damage) can be doubled by doubling the spell points; tripling spell points can triple the aspect (or double another aspect), etc.  One spell point is recovered for every hour of rest.

Wizards get a spell learning point for every point of experience earned.  (Other spellcasters get a spell learning point for every two points of experience earned.)  The cost of learning a spell – assuming the spellcaster has a copy of the spell (from the Wizards' Guild or elsewhere) – is determined by the level of the spell and the “chance of failure” the spellcaster is willing to take per casting.  The cost of any of the following options is two thousand points:  a 1st level spell with no chance of failure, a 4th level spell with a 75% chance of failure, a 2nd level spell with a 10% chance of failure, or a 3rd level spell with a 30% chance of failure.

Six years before the publication of Second Edition AD&D, Wizards' World presented “specialty wizards” as a character profession option.  Instead of schools of magic, Wizards' World has types:  Destructive, Curative, Creation, Transformation, Enchantment, Detection, Illusion, and Protection.  A specialty wizard pays half of the learning cost for spells of his type, but pays double for any other type.  A specialty wizard gains more spell points for casting spells of his specific type.  For instance, a sixth level 'general' wizard has twelve spell points, while a sixth level specialty wizard has six spell points to use with any spell type and eight spell points that can be used only with his specialized type.

Although percentile dice are used for combat, spell success, and thief abilities, curiously, 3d10 are used for attribute saving rolls.  Multiplying an attribute value by three would seem to provide a viable percentile score for a linear probability distribution consistent with the rest of the game.

Wizards' World

Art by Tracy Cameron Mansfield

Wizards' World is one of those games that boil down to D&D with some house rules thrown in.  Nowadays, you can't swing a displacer beast without hitting one of those; however, Wizards' World was released in 1983, when the notion was not altogether tired.  In a previous post, I explained that Lawrence Schick confused this game with Wizards' Realm.  There's only one syllable of difference between the titles; perhaps I expect too much from Schick.

Anyway, Wizards' World is no longer an obscure, out-of-print game from thirty years ago; it is now an obscure, print-on-demand game from thirty years ago.  It has been acquired by Daniel Proctor and is available wherever Goblinoid Games are sold.  The current printing has been reformatted somewhat and incorporates errata.  Yet, the book is not entirely without error; the attacker critical blow table on page 13 displays a spreadsheet goof of “Jan-50” instead of “1-50.”  “Populous” instead of “populace” (p. 59) remains uncorrected from the original version.  Also, it would have been nice to have a spell index and an alphabetized monster listing.

One interesting difference of the current version from the original is the lack of any mention of co-author Douglas S. Krull.  Originally, Krull's name appeared with that of David Silvera on the cover, the title page, and beneath the preface.  The preface itself is unchanged with phrases like “We especially wish” and “We also wish.”  It makes it seem that Silvera is employing the editorial 'we'.  Krull's  status as an unperson is confirmed when Proctor, in his foreword, uses the phrase “of the author” (singular).  Perhaps Krull wanted to divorce himself from any association with the game.

All of the artwork (including the cover shown above) is the product of Tracy Mansfield, who evidently did not pursue a career in art or adorn any other game books.  His efforts are rendered in a style I can only describe as a step up from high school notebook realism.  I'm not complaining; it offers something of an 'old school' authenticity.

The first step in creating a character is to select a race.  Playable races include the familiar assortment of humans, halflings, dwarves, elves, half-elves, and gnomes. Additionally, there are 'evil' versions dwarves, elves, and halflings.  I guess humans are already evil; they are “the most warlike race” and are considered “inferior and barbaric.”  Gnomes enjoy practical jokes most of all and “the gnomish sense of humor has been known run roughshod over meek, and sometimes not so meek, beings of all types.”  So, I guess gnomes are already evil too.

The 'bad' dwarves are called metamorphic dwarves and they are servants of the Earth King.  “They have golden skin and sparkling eyes” and they “can also cause their skin to appear to move and change hue.”  The 'bad' halflings are called demon halflings; they received powers from Lucifer and Mephistopheles.  Demon halfling powers include some percentage of magic resistance, the ability to transform “to humanoid form,” and they take half damage from fire.  Dark elves in Wizards' World are standard issue except they automatically have some spellcasting ability (as do 'normal' elves).

Although there are 'bad' character races, Wizards' World has no rules for alignment.  However, characters of the white knight profession get an experience bonus “for being kind, generous and generally heroic” and an experience penalty for behaving evilly; vice versa for black knights.

There are seven primary attributes:  strength, willpower, intelligence, endurance, appearance, dexterity, and agility.  Dexterity influences “manipulative capability (i.e. picking locks)” and “ability to hit with a weapon.”  Agility measures “reflexes and dodging ability.”  Each primary attribute has a value from three to thirty; the average “for normal, non-adventuring individuals is 10.”  Primary attributes are determined based on a character's race; humans have 3d6+2 for each.

There are four secondary attributes, each of which is the average of a set of three primary attributes:  Life Points (END, STR, and WIL), Alertness (WIL, INT, and AGL), Stealth (INT, AGL, and DEX), and Movement Value (WIL, AGL, and END).

Wizards' World offers an interesting assortment of character professions beyond the expected warrior, wizard, and thief; however, there are no cleric analogs.  Among the other 'professions' there are:  attackers, defenders, scouts, spies, assassins, white knights, black knights, jesters (yes, there are jesters), destroyers (the Wizards' World equivalent of the AD&D monk), and vampires.  Incidentally, “Vampires...are the only monster that can be played as a character.” (I guess demon halflings, metamorphic dwarves, and jesters are not considered to be monsters.)

Entry into a profession is based on attribute minimums and race.  In Wizards' World, race is not as restrictive as AD&D with regard to profession/class choice.  Among the restrictions, dwarves and halflings cannot be wizards; however, their 'bad boy' race equivalents can.  Also, the 'bad' races can't be white knights, neither can gnomes.  (I told you they're evil.)

Curiously, neither flavor of halfling can be a scout.  At first glance, this might be explained by the fact that the minimum strength needed for a scout is 13 and halflings only roll 3d4 to determine strength.  However, demon halflings roll 2d4+1d6 for strength and thus can have 13 strength.  Also, halflings are permitted to join the attacker profession even though the minimum strength requirement of 14.