A little sneak peak at PU3

[Kevin]

A little sneak peak of PU3 Copyright 2006 Palladium Books Inc.

I’m about half way through Carmen Bellaire’s excellent Powers Unlimited 3 and think this may be the best one yet! It’s full of cool super abilities, many of them unique and even bizarre and eerie. All of them fun. Take this one for example:

Alter Physical Structure: Bone

The super being has the ability to change himself into a walking skeleton or cover himself in a bony exoskeleton (pick one, can’t do both). A character with this power can be truly frightful.
The character retains all five senses (sight, hearing, touch, etc.) even though he appears to be nothing more than a skeleton. Simply by laying down and not moving (he can remain as still as a corpse) the character can feign death (96% proficiency). But when the hero is active in his skeletal form, he is a terror to behold and has a Horror Factor of 15.
The bone exoskeleton looks like someone in a suit of armor made of bone; has growable weapons as well as may have horns and spikes. The exoskeleton may have an organic-tech appearance (Horror Factor Eight), or look demonic and monstrous (Horror Factor 11).
1. Increased Weight and Strength: Reduce weight by half for skeleton form, increase weight by 50% for exoskeleton, in both cases increase P.S. 1D6+1 points (roll one time to determine how strong the character is whenever he transforms); considered to be Extraordinary Physical Strength (same as the Minor Super Ability) and can carry 100 times P.S. in pounds and can lift 200 times.
2. Armor Rating 13 and S.D.C.: Whether a skeleton or a bony exoskeleton, the bone character has an A.R. of 13 and 213 S.D.C. This means an attacker must roll a 14 or higher to strike and inflict damage. Any roll to strike under the A.R. is harmless, even if it’s from a gun or energy blast. Rolls above the A.R. 13 inflict full damage to the S.D.C. When all 213 S.D.C. are gone, damage is done to Hit Points. Even in bone form the character is vulnerable to attacks involving gas (he still breathes, even though it may not look like it), magic and psionic attacks, but is impervious to hyper dermic needles (no flesh to inject) and drugs unless they are eaten.
Cold-based attacks do half damage and can function in temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit or as hot as 120 degrees. Fire, however, inflicts double damage.
Explosions, falls and similar high impact do half damage.
3. Bone Horns, Claws and Blades: The bone character can, at will, grow spikes on the knuckles (4D4 damage), claws on its fingers (3D6 damage per claw strike), one large, sword-like blade from each forearm (4D6 damage) and a pair of horns on the head (2D6 damage from head butts). Can also grow spikes on the shoulders, thighs and head, but they are more cosmetic and designed to look ominous than to use as weapons. Bonuses: +1 to strike, +2 to parry, +3 to disarm; also include any P.S. damage bonuses to Bone Horns, Claws or Blade attacks.
4. Bone Shards: The character can grow and throw shards of bone that resemble small knives.
Range: 40 feet (12.2 m) +10 feet (3 m) per level of experience.
Damage: 1D6 per single bone spur, or 3D6 from three simultaneously thrown shards. The creation of one or three bone throwing blades takes one melee action/attack and another to throw them.
Duration: The blades turn do dust after one melee round.
Attacks Per Melee: Each creation of 1-3 shards counts as one melee attack/action and throwing them counts as a second.
Bonus: +3 to strike.
5. Heal Bones: The super being can mend broken bones by touching the injured part of the body and concentrating. Each fracture to be healed (most serious broken bones have 1D4+1 fractures/breaks) uses up one entire melee round (15 seconds) and all the character’s attacks/actions for that round, but is instantly mends the break and restores 1D4 Hit Points. The person healed still feels the pain and subsequent penalties from the injury, but only for 24 hours!
Range: Touch.
Duration: Instant results.
Attacks per Melee: Each healed fracture uses up all the character’s attacks/actions for the entire melee round.
Note: This healing power can NOT be used to break bone only heal.
6. Additional Bonuses & Abilities: The character’s own bones are unbreakable and he is immune to diseases of the bones! Explosions, impact from falls and car crashes do half damage, +2 to roll with impact (reducing damage by half again), +3 to save vs Horror Factor.

Other Alter Physical Structure abilities include:

Alter Physical Structure: Air
Alter Physical Structure: Ash
Alter Physical Structure: Blood
Alter Physical Structure: Bone
Alter Physical Structure: Coral
Alter Physical Structure: Energy
Alter Physical Structure: Foam
Alter Physical Structure: Force Fields
Alter Physical Structure: Glass
among several other APS (Carmen loves APS powers) . . .

There are over 120 powers in all, and I think most are very nice additions to Heroes Unlimited.

An errata corrected edition of Powers Unlimited 2 should be released simultaneously with PU3. Both should be available shortly after Gen Con. We’ll try to bring a dozen or so photocopies to sell at Gen Con for you maniacs who just can’t wait.


The Rifter #35

Looks like Rifter #35 is on track to shipping on Friday (July 28th) or Monday. Those of you getting the X-Mas in July Grab Bags are getting a sneak peak at what you can expect, because the “special portfolio” is made up of 10 of the 30-plus pinup page illustrations in The Rifter 35. And two of ‘em are in color (they appear in black and white in The Rifter).

We’ll probably bring 30 or so of these special portfolios with us to Gen Con to sell ($25 per set of 10 different illoes). Of course, you get ‘em all in The Rifter #35.

By the way, for those of you who have seen Rifts® Madhaven, you’ll notice that there is a different Rifter #35 cover posted online than what appears on the back of Madhaven. The one on Madhaven is by Apollo Okamura, and as good as it is, we decided not to use it as the cover (it is one of the color plates in the special portfolio). Why? Here’s the story.

Originally I had planned to draw and paint the cover and even announced as much in Press Releases and product descriptions. Then I got buried in work (what else is new) and didn’t think I’d have time to do it. I also had cold feet. I haven’t done a lot of artwork over the last 10 years and I haven’t used watercolors in something like 15 years! I wasn’t sure I could pull it off. When Apollo turned in a nice color piece (so did Mark Dudley, btw) I decided we’d use it as the Rifter cover instead of me doing one. Unfortunately for Apollo, the art bug kept nagging at me, and with some encouragement from Wayne Smith and Alex Marciniszyn, I decided to make the time and give it a shot. The end result was pretty darn good, so my cover (girl, sea monster, baby sea monster and doggie) was put back into the schedule. I hope you enjoy it. To my surprise, I already have one offer from a fan who wants to buy it. Nice. Haven’t decided to sell it yet.

That’s all for now. See some of you at Gen Con.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
President, writer, artist, and Palladium lunatic