Looking for a Power Rangers game

[Seandiggersby]

16 hours ago, Pink Jedi Ranger said:

Working on setting up my Power Rangers game. Not sure when it will be ready for applications, but hopefully sooner rather than later. Wish me luck.

Good luck, I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

[Trigun]

Same. I'll just need to decide on what Ranger I'm playing.

[Pink Jedi Ranger]

Not ready yet (Across the Stars still hasn't arrived and I'd like to know what Silver and Gold Rangers have by default so I know how much to keep) but thought I'd solicit opinions on a couple of things that aren't entirely clear in the corebook.

 

1. Why do unarmed strikes default to stun rather than straightforward blunt damage?

2. Am I right in thinking that an attack has to beat the target's Evasion defence to land, but Toughness to actually do damage?

[Phntm888]

On 4/23/2024 at 10:32 AM, Pink Jedi Ranger said:

Not ready yet (Across the Stars still hasn't arrived and I'd like to know what Silver and Gold Rangers have by default so I know how much to keep) but thought I'd solicit opinions on a couple of things that aren't entirely clear in the corebook.

 

1. Why do unarmed strikes default to stun rather than straightforward blunt damage?

2. Am I right in thinking that an attack has to beat the target's Evasion defence to land, but Toughness to actually do damage?

A week late on this, but the PDF I just bought last week from the publisher's website lists step 3 of the Attack Action (p. 163) as typically the GM or possibly the acting player choosing the Defense that an attack targets. My read on that is that the GM could choose to resolve the attack against either the target's Evasion defense or Toughness defense, depending on the nature of the attack.

The Evasion Defense paragraph that goes more in depth on the Attack Action (p. 169) also says that the target must be aware of the attack in order to use their Evasion defense. Alternatively, the Toughness Defense paragraph on the same page says the target could choose not to actively evade the attack and use their Toughness defense for "absorbing the blow".

 

As for the question of unarmed strikes, I'm guessing it's the traditional RPG reasoning of, "Unarmed strikes do nonlethal (or stun, in this case) damage by default."

[Pink Jedi Ranger]

A melee attack having to beat Evasion to land and beat Toughness to do damage feels appropriate to me given the number of examples throughout the franchise of a Ranger landing a hit on a villain and the villain not even feeling it.

In the case of hitting a basic Putty Patroller (Toughness 13, Evasion 11, 1 Health) scoring 11 or 12 could be described as the Putty shrugging off the blow, but scoring 13 or above would be a hit (or combo as appropriate) that sends the Putty crashing to the ground (hopefully not to get back up again)

[zeone3000]

It's one of the various Defenses depending on the form of attack.

[Trigun]

Yeah. Essence 20 uses four different Defenses depending on the type of stats use. Toughness for Strength, Evasion for Speed, Willpower for Smarts and Cleverness for Social.

[Pink Jedi Ranger]

Yes, I know that 🙂, and though the book says "Evasion if the target is trying to dodge, Toughness if they're not", my gut still says that a melee attack should probably beat both to actually hurt the target... but then I have to ask myself what impact that will have on combat - will it make things boring because they take longer, or does potentially shrugging off some of the hits they're taking help players feel more heroic?

[Phntm888]

From some of the reviews I've read online, level 1 (and low levels in general) in this game is dicey. It's easy for players to go down in one or two hits because you don't have much health to start. Requiring an attack to overcome both Evasion and Toughness would help with survivability, especially since being Morphed adds an armor bonus to your Toughness defense, which has a good chance of being the higher of the two defenses that way. Given how it could make combat drag on in PbP, however, the boost to survivability/feeling more heroic might not be worth the extra time. We'd probably have to experiment with it in actual play.

I also noticed that when reading the monster stat blocks in the Core Book that it actually specifies what Defense a monster's attack targets. It looks like Energy-based attacks typically target Evasion, and physically damaging attacks typically target Toughness. That might be a better way to decide it, but it's up to you in the end.

[Pink Jedi Ranger]

Unless I missed it, player character health seems to be capped at 7 or 8 (1 or 2 from their Origin plus the maximum 6 ranks in Conditioning, which take a while to acquire) with various methods of healing, but nothing else that permanently increases that.

[Phntm888]

I was looking to see if there was a Perk or Grid Talent in the core rulebook that did so, but there isn't. There are Grid Talents to increase Zord Health, but not Ranger Health. I don't know if maybe one got added in the expansion books or not.

[Trigun]

I don't recall one being added in the sourcebooks, no. Although I haven't read Beneath the Helmet yet so it's possible there's such a perk/grid talent in that one. I'll need to check.

[zeone3000]

Only a two. Grid Science III (Survival Training) and Beast Morpher Form (Gorilla). One and two respectively.

[Pink Jedi Ranger]

And yet the Character Sheet has 20 dots for recording damage, which is more than anyone can ever get.

Where's this health-granting Grid Science 3 - Survival Training? Did they change the Blue Ranger's perks while I wasn't looking? That's not what my Corebook says under Grid Tech 3.

 

I'm toying with a couple of ideas.

1 - Morphing gives bonus Health equal to your Ranger form's armour bonus to Toughness.

2 - Add 1 Health on every even-numbered level.

[zeone3000]

Beneath the Helmet