Since September of '06 I have been meeting once per month with a group of players for D&D. I am able to meet with them one Saturday per month. It's a great group that varies between 5 and 7 people plus the DM.
From the get-go I had told the players and DM that I was interested in running a superhero rpg based upon the classic MSH game from the late '80's early 90's.
4 of the crew were interested but recoiled at the fact that there were no automatic defensive adjustments due to Agilty or Psyche when applicable.
Pussies.
So to recruit them to a game I promised them that I would set up house rules to help them make the arduous transition from armor class v. experience level to some real heroic combat. . . simulated by dice rolling.
My goal was to keep the action exciting on the high end of the spectrum, yet more realistic on the low end.
Here is what Necessity, the Mother of Invention, inspried me to do for these Zombies from the Age of the D20:
Attack Ability plus Talent compared to the Defense Ability.
Unless the attack were mystical or psychic, the Defensive Ability would be Agility. Psyche would be used to compare against mystical or psychic attacks.
If the attacker's attack ability plus their talent bonus were within one rank of the defender'agility, then the prime modifier would be zero.
A character would not gain bonuses for superior Ability plus talent; that is Amazing v. Typical would still have just the Amazing chance to succeed.
For instance, Remarkable v. Incredible means that the attacker still has a Remarkable chance of success because the difference in ability is within one rank.
If the difference was 2 ranks: Attacker -1CS; Rm v.Am means that the attacker has a Ex chance of success.
If the difference was 3 ranks: Attacker - 3CS; Rm v. Mn means that the attacker has a Ty chance of success.
If the difference was 4 or worse ranks: Attacker - 5CS; Rm v. Un means that the attacker has a Feeble chance of success.
Next I applied my solution to shifting Below Shift Zero:
If modifiers due to the Prime Modifier illustrated above then combined with other mods due to range, target size, dodging, etc, should cause the column shifting to go lower than Shift Zeto then adhere the following:
Street punks, thugs, henchmen, the MONARCH"S minions (Venture Bros.), Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars, etc., have NO CHANCE of attack success.
For instance, a minion with Good Agility firing at a hero with Amazing Agility takes a primary modifier of -5CS. His chance drops from Good to past the Shift Zero column. Therefore, automatic failure.
Or if the defender in the above example had Excellent Agility but dodged with a Red result,then the attacker with Good agility would take a -6Cs. That would shift them below Shift Zero; result: Automatic miss.
However, heroes always get a chance.
The Game Judge may rule one of the following:
1) Regardless of how many shifts below Shift Zero are calculated, they are ignored and the hero has at the very least a Shift Zero chance of success (66 or better on d100).
2) Regardless if hero or villain, one shift below Zero means that the hero has a Yellow Shift Zero cnance of success (95 or better)
and two or more shifts below zero means that the hero has a Red Shift Zero chance of success (a 100 on d%).
Because of this framework I was able to convince these armor class loving d20 panzies to give Classic MSH a try.
We all had a great time.
This idea could sell to the d20 lovers of the world.
