FALLEN IS GOTHAM: Fallen Sons

All characters, from heroes and villains to the average person on the street, are defined by eight abilities, basic traits each character has to a greater or lesser extent. Abilities tell you how strong, smart, and aware a character is, among other things. The abilities are: Strength, Stamina, Agility, Dexterity, Fighting, Intellect, Awareness, and Presence.

 

Each ability is assigned a rank rated from -5 to 20, measuring its effectiveness. A rank of 0 is unremarkable or average. Rank 2 is pretty well above average. A 5 is truly exceptional, while a 7 is about the most that can be expected from a “normal” human being. Beyond that is super-human, and a rank of 20 is cosmic-level, far beyond the ability of mere mortals (and even most heroes). Abilities can even have negative ranks, for those well below average, as low as –5. 

 

 

Although a rank of 7 is defined as “the peak of human achievement” in an ability on the Ability Benchmarks table, a character with an ability rank greater than 7 isn’t necessarily “non-human,” merely superhuman in comparison to ordinary people. Many “normal human” characters in the comics have truly superhuman abilities, particularly mental abilities. A character can have a superhuman ability rank without necessarily being anything other than an amazingly talented, well-trained human being. The limit of what “normal” people can accomplish is up to the Gamemaster and depends very much on the style of the game. 

 

 

TURNS

Turns dictate how many AP'S you have in a text based turn. Your character must start with 3 AP's cost of turns to begin the game. You can purchase up to 5 turns maximum unless granted special advantages by the GM. This does not include turns granted by having additional henchmen.

See XP costs for how much additional turns cost.

 

 

STRENGTH.(STR)

Strength measures sheer muscle power and the ability to apply it. Your Strength rank applies to:

• -Damage dealt by your unarmed and strength-based attacks.

• -How far you can jump.

• -The amount of weight you can lift, carry, and throw.

• -Athletics skill checks.

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  STAMINA.(STA)

  Stamina is health, endurance, and overall physical resilience. Stamina is important because it affects a character’s ability to resist most forms of damage. Your Stamina modifier applies to:

• -Toughness defense, for resisting damage.

• -Fortitude defense, for resisting effects targeting your

  character’s health.

• -Stamina checks to resist or recover from things af- fecting your character’s health when a specific defense doesn’t apply.

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  AGILITY.(AGL)

  Agility is balance, grace, speed, and overall physical coordination. Your Agility rank applies to:

• -Dodge defense, for avoiding ranged attacks and other hazards.

• -Initiative bonus, for acting first in combat.

• -Acrobatics and Stealth skill checks.

• -Agility checks for feats of coordination, gross movement, and quickness when a specific skill doesn’t apply.

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  DEXTERITY.(DEX)

  Dexterity is a measure of hand-eye coordination, precision, and manual dexterity. Your Dexterity rank applies to:

• -Attack checks for ranged attacks.

• -Sleight of Hand and Vehicles skill checks.

• -Dexterity checks for feats of fine control and preci- sion when a specific skill doesn’t apply.

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  FIGHTING.(FGT)

  Fighting measures your character’s ability in close combat, from hitting a target to ducking and weaving around any counter-attacks. Your Fighting rank applies to: 

• -Attack checks for close attacks.

• -Parry defense, for avoiding close attacks.

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  INTELLECT.(INT)

  Intellect covers reasoning ability and learning. A character with a high Intellect rank tends to be knowledgeable and well educated. Your Intellect modifier applies to:

• -Expertise, Investigation, Technology, and Treatment skill checks.

• -Intellect checks to solve problems using sheer brain- power when a specific skill doesn’t apply.

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• AWARENESS.(AWE)

  While Intellect covers reasoning, Awareness describes common sense and intuition, what some might call “wisdom.” A character with a high Intellect and a low Awareness may be an “absent-minded professor” type, smart but not always aware of what’s going on. On the other hand, a not so bright (low Intellect) character may have a great deal of common sense (high Awareness). Your Awareness modifier applies to:

• -Will defense, for resisting attacks on your mind.

• -Insight and Perception skill checks.

• -Awareness checks to resolve matters of intuition when a specific skill doesn’t apply.

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• PRESENCE.(PRE)

  Presence is force of personality, persuasiveness, leadership ability and (to a lesser degree) attractiveness. Presence is useful for heroes who intend to be leaders as well as those who strike fear into the hearts of criminals with their presence. Your Presence modifier applies to:

• -Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion skill checks.

• -Presence checks to influence others through force of

  personality when a specific skill doesn’t apply. 

 

 

 

 

 

DEFENSES AND INITIATIVE

Heroes face many hazards in their line of work, from attacks by villainous foes to traps and fiendish mind control. A hero’s defenses are abilities used to avoid such things, determining the difficulty to affect a hero with an attack, or to make resistance checks against them. Each defense is based on a particular ability, modified by the hero’s advantages and powers.  

 

 

DODGE

Dodge defense is based on Agility rank. It includes reaction time, quickness, nimbleness, and overall coordination, used to avoid ranged attacks or other hazards where reflexes and speed are important.

 

FORTITUDE

Fortitude defense is based on Stamina and measures health and resistance to threats like poison or disease. It incorporates constitution, ruggedness, metabolism, and immunity. 

 

PARRY

Parry defense is based on Fighting. It is the ability to counter, duck, or otherwise evade a foe’s attempts to strike you in close combat through superior fighting ability. 

 

TOUGHNESS

Toughness defense is based on Stamina and is resistance to direct damage or harm, and overall durability.

 

 

WILL

Will defense is based on Awareness rank. It measures mental stability, level-headedness, determination, self- confidence, self-awareness, and willpower, and is used to resist mental or spiritual attacks.

 

DEFENSE RANK

Your base defense ranks are equal to your ranks in their associated abilities. You can increase your defenses above the values granted by your ability ranks by spending xp points: 1 xp point grants you an additional rank in a defense, 

 

The exception is Toughness, which can only be increased above your base Stamina rank using advantages and powers, not by direct spending of xp points. This reflects that greater-than-normal Toughness is virtually always some sort of special ability.

 

 

DEFENSE CHECKS    

One use of defenses is
determining a defense
class, or the difficulty
class to affect a target with
a particular attack. This is the ap-
propriate defense, plus 10, just like
a routine check (indeed, it is essentially
a measure of the character’s “routine” de-
fense). So hitting a character with a ranged
attack goes against Dodge defense, giving
the attack a DC of (Dodge + 10). Similarly,
affecting someone with a mental power
goes against Will defense, with a DC of (Will
+ 10), and so forth.

 

 

RESISTANCE CHECKS

Defenses are also used to measure the ability to overcome certain effects, involving a resistance check of the defense plus a die roll against a difficulty class determined by the effect or hazard. So you might make a Fortitude resistance check for your hero to overcome a toxin, for example, or a Dodge resistance check to avoid a trap just as it is trig- gered, and so on. This is referred to as “resisting,” such as “resisted by Fortitude” or “resisted by Dodge.”

The main resistance check traits are Dodge, Fortitude, Toughness, and Will. 

 

 

 

INITIATIVE

When things start happening quickly, characters use their initiative bonuses to determine who goes first. Each character involved in a conflict makes a check of d20 + initiative modifier, which is:

Initiative Modifier = Agility + advantages (Improved Initiative) + power/tech modifiers