Super Powers to Dungeon World rules. Need ideas

Hello! I'm trying to make up rules for allowing players to create their own powers for my upcoming campaign. The basis is simple. They will have a new move "Use super power": When you use one of your super powers , roll+power ability (ability of players choise, one for all the powers) * On 10+ power works, no problem * On 7-9 power still works, but choose one - It has unexpected conciquenses (DM will tell you what happens) - You draw unwanted attention or pot yourself in a spot - You can no longer use this power, until you rest Describing the powers themselves from the fiction stand point is simple, like: Super punch: you punch someone very, very hard But how do you translate it into numbers like damage? Or may be some powers are fiction only? For super punch i would say: roll damage die twice and take the highest roll. Enemy flies through the air for couple of miles. If you have any ideas of powers that can be translated to rules, or just cool super powers (or anime style powers), post them here! And we can work out some rules for them together. PS: if you have suggestion about the move itself, post them here too!

What are the mechanics used in Dungeon world?

Dungeon World's rolls are usually 2d6 plus a modifier (usually determined by one of your stats), Metroknight. You succeed on a 7-9, but their are consequences determined by either the player or the GM. On a 10+ you succeed normally.

I think the best thing to do in that case is to ask your players what the super power is and what the mechanics are. I often do this when I DM Dungeon World - ask players "okay, what does that item do?" or "you've just been horribly mutated by the radiation. What cool power and what drawback do you now have?"

Sarah A. said: Dungeon World's rolls are usually 2d6 plus a modifier (usually determined by one of your stats), Metroknight. You succeed on a 7-9, but their are consequences determined by either the player or the GM. On a 10+ you succeed normally. Sounds almost like ICONS. It is a variant of Fate mechanics. You roll 2d6-7 and get -5 to +5. ICONS is an ogc also : ICONS: OGC

You might look at Simple World , which is a generic "-World" building system. If you're going to build on dungeon world, on top of the powers one thing you might want to think about is translating the "classes." For example, a character with d4 damage and zero armor should have more leeway to create potent and flexibile powers than someone with d10 damage, 2 armor, and lots of cool gear. (So for example, maybe Wolverine gets d10 damage but his powers aren't too crazy: healing, super-senses, some free claws, a berserker rage once per day. Whereas Jean Grey is weaker in a fight but she can lift anything with her mind, read minds, make psychic and telekinetic attacks, float the party over the moat, etc. She gets added flexibility to pay for her weaker damage, sort of like a druid shapechanging or a wizard with rituals). Another thing is the power-level of the super heroes in the game. Are they making the Watchmen or the Justice League?

to crimsyn Yeah, that's what I'm planing on doing. The question is how do you rate the powers and what kinds of actual bonuses would each power give? Basically I'm trying to get some refference to compare to, so if you can share any kind of bonuses that you have used in your games, that would be very helpful to Jason Z. I'm thinking about basing damage die on the main ability. Each time you activate your power, you roll + this ability modifier. For example, Super Man's main ability would be Strength and to you any of his powers player would roll+STR. So if your main ability is Strength you get a d10 damage die, but is limited to powers based on strength (Super Man is not a very good example of that =) ) On the other hand if your main ability is Intelligence you get a d4, but you can use any magical power you can imagine I'm thinking about making Bleach style powers (locken is weapons). But power level is still a big factor. May be rating powers in steps would be a good idea? For example: if you have (or currently using) powers of level 2 you get -1 ongoing against enemies of power level 3, and +1 ongoing against enemies of power level 1 Power levels being: 1 normal human, 2 highly trained human (Batman), 3 human with magical powers (Green Lantern), 4 Godlike (Super Man)

I've always just delegated that to my players as well. They seem to have a good idea of what is both fun and reasonable. DW is a simple enough system that it's not hard to make up something on the fly and balance isn't that big of a concern anyways. If you've ever DMed for a druid, you quickly get an idea of what is reasonable. Another way to do it would be to "augment" a power - like "Super Punch" may be just Hack and Slash with more damage. As one example from having a druid in the party who took a bear form Bear Hug: Spend 1 hold to Bear Hug an opponent. It's just like Hack and Slash, but on a hit, the target is also tightly in your grasp.

Jason Ocks said: to Jason Z. I'm thinking about basing damage die on the main ability. Each time you activate your power, you roll + this ability modifier. For example, Super Man's main ability would be Strength and to you any of his powers player would roll+STR. So if your main ability is Strength you get a d10 damage die, but is limited to powers based on strength (Super Man is not a very good example of that =) ) On the other hand if your main ability is Intelligence you get a d4, but you can use any magical power you can imagine I'm thinking about making Bleach style powers (locken is weapons). But power level is still a big factor. May be rating powers in steps would be a good idea? For example: if you have (or currently using) powers of level 2 you get -1 ongoing against enemies of power level 3, and +1 ongoing against enemies of power level 1 Power levels being: 1 normal human, 2 highly trained human (Batman), 3 human with magical powers (Green Lantern), 4 Godlike (Super Man) This seems needlessly complicated, especially for Dungeon World.

to crimsyn All of it or something it particular? I do tend to overcomplicate things =) If this is too complex, how would you handle difference in power between Super Man and Batman?

Jason Ocks said: to crimsyn All of it or something it particular? I do tend to overcomplicate things =) If this is too complex, how would you handle difference in power between Super Man and Batman? All of it. To me, Dungeon World is a system which embraces simple mechanics which encourage interesting in-character interactions. Basing a damage die on the main ability is unnecessary and needlessly complicated. You're already at a disadvantage trying to roll, say, Volley, when DEX is your dump stat. You don't need to compound that by creating a mechanic to reduce damage. This power level thing is also needlessly complicated and completely unnecessary. As for the difference between Superman and Batman... well, Superman is basically invulnerable to everything but Kryptonite, right? Seems to me like the best way to deal with that is something like how the Tarrasque is dealt with in DW. It has a special quality of "Impervious" and trying to fight it straight-up is impossible because it doesn't even have HP you can run down. But, brave and intellgent adventurers may be able to find out how to put it to sleep somehow. For someone like Superman who can't be taken in a fair fight, trying to fight him is more about a quest for Kryptonite than a direct confrontation. Honestly, I would probably leave the mechanics as they are and encourage the players to lead with the fiction.

to crimsyn Well, if you look closely, class' damage is already determined by a main stat: Druid and Cleric - Wisdow - d6 Ranger and Thief - Dexterity - d8 Fighter and Paladin - Strength - d10 Wizard - Inelligence - d4 I just said it in a different way, and added that your main stat will also determine, what kind of powers you can have. With Batman vs Super Man, this rule does apply, but don't you think that it makes enemies kind of binary? You can fight them, or you can not fight them.